


The Wedding Planner

by AlyssainWonderland



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Background Relationships, Eventual Smut, Everyone Is Alive, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Smut, Happy Ending, Honeymoon, Multi, Rimming, Rough Sex, Slow Dancing, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Vibrators, Wedding Planning, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:15:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24432685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyssainWonderland/pseuds/AlyssainWonderland
Summary: “Who could it be?” Tony asked, staring at the ceiling above his bed, still fully clothed, hands intertwined and resting on his stomach.“You still haven’t let this go? It’s literally yesterday’s news.” Pepper rolled her eyes as she joined him, though she slid under the covers and actually settled in to go to sleep.“Of course not! One of my- OUR- favorite people spontaneously comes in my office after having been lacking any kind of romance for the past year and a half, and I’m supposed to let it go?” He paused, but Pepper knew he was by no means done so didn’t bother stepping in. “Do you think it was a vibrator or something else?”
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Original Female Character(s), Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Kudos: 20





	1. The One with the Vibrating Panties

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written that I've enjoyed enough to post, so please be kind! That being said, I absolutely welcome constructive criticism, and I would love helpful feedback!
> 
> I make no profit off of any Marvel properties or characters, the only thing that belongs to me is Bri!
> 
> Please do not post this anywhere else, I wrote it for Ao3 and do not consent to have it spread elsewhere without my direct permission.

“Bri, baby!” The voice calling her over the intercom jerked her from her almost daze as she stared at the mind-blowing price she had been quoted for to close the entirety of Central Park for an evening. 

“What?” She sort of snapped her reply, wincing as she heard the tone of her voice. “Sorry, Tony. Before you get the chance to reprimand me for my ‘tude.”

“Again,” her boss teased her through the intercom, and she could practically feel his smirk. 

“Yes, again. Now, you were calling me?”

“Yea, the numbers for my wedding, have you gotten them yet?”

“The last price quote just came through, boss man. It’s not a cheap one.”

“Oh good. Maybe I can outspend the Kimye wedding!”

“Don’t ever say Kimye again.”

“I’m hip, Bri, trust me it's cool. Anyways, can you print that out, put it in the folder and bring it up? Pep and I wanna go over it with you.”

“Sure thing. But remember, as She-Who-Was-Asked-To-Plan-The-Wedding-Of-The-Century, my say is final. The two of you aren’t undermining my creative genius.”

“Honey, we love it when you talk all authoritative like that.” This time it was Pepper’s voice, cutting in swiftly to obviously prevent Tony from continuing this jest. “We just want to make sure everyone else is cooperating, a quick run over, a few checks signed for you to pay, lunch, and you’ll be back in your office conquering both the wedding and the Stark Industries worlds by one.”

“Lunch?” Bri’s tone was a little tight, her eyes flicking to the clock. Damn it. And from the sound of Pepper’s voice, it was non-negotiable.

“We ordered from that sushi place you really like! On us!” Tony sounded like an excitable puppy, and she wouldn’t have been able to say no anyways. 

“You spoil me. I’ll be right up,” she answered, pressing the button to disconnect before they could keep bothering her. She set about printing the last page that had to go into the wedding folder… for now at least, trying to innocuously shoot off a quick text as she stood at the printer, hoping she didn’t look as frenzied as she felt. Of all days, they had to pick fucking Tuesday to call for her. Tony had never asked her for lunch on a Tuesday. Mondays and Fridays she was in his office more often than not, and every single Thursday she was there unless he was gone on business. Wednesdays were somewhat uncommon, but never, _never_ Tuesdays. 

With the full folder now under her arm, Bri put her phone back in her desk drawer, hoping and praying that her ‘ABORT MISSION’ message got through, and made her way up to the penthouse. The elevator ride was only a short fourteen seconds (she had counted once) but with each moment that passed, she could feel the pit of her stomach draw tighter in pure panic. The closer it got to 12:24, the more her skin crawled with tense unease. 

Even Tony’s brightly grinning face launching at her as the doors opened didn’t get rid of the falling sensation in her gut, but he did manage to push it to the back of her mind as he came at her with pursed lips. She shrieked, darting out of the elevator.

“Pepper!” she shouted, holding her wedding folder in front of her like a shield, as if that would stop him. “Are you sure you want to marry this… this…”

“Perv?” Tony suggested eagerly, and Bri tilted her head back and laughed. 

“This perv?” she finished her question to Pepper, who was now standing in the doorway of the office. Tony finally managed to land a kiss to the front of Bri’s throat, taking her to the floor in the process, and she scowled at him, though he retreated quickly. She settled for smacking his ass with the folder when he stood, earning her only a thrilled look over his shoulder. 

“Oh well you just invited him, honey. Can’t quite fault him for that. Especially not when it was your idea to start this whole thing by ‘accidentally’ keeping Cosmopolitan’s threesome articles on your work laptop,” Pepper snickered, crossing the room to offer a hand up to Bri. 

“Actually he invited it by hiring a stripper-gram for my birthday!” Bri scoffed, but she was laughing as she climbed to her feet. 

“Cambria, you can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy Valentine! Tall, dark, and handsome? Much like myself,” Tony said, putting on his affronted expression. 

Bri rolled her eyes and pushed him towards the door. “I’m half surprised you didn’t join ‘The Love God’ on my desk and try to prove your superiority. But relax your bad self, Tony. I’ll always be pining over you, discontent with my lot in life now that I can truly never have you. Pardon me if I break into anguished wails at the wedding. I’ll just be inconsolable.”

“I knew you wanted me from the day I met you. I told you, didn’t I Pep!”

“Sure thing. Speaking of the wedding, Bri, how much did you just increase our price tag?” Pepper navigated the two of them towards the actual topic of discussion with practiced ease, sinking onto the couch next to Tony as Bri kneeled on the floor on the opposite side of the low table and spread out her papers. 

They spent the next forty minutes arguing. Well, it was more like Bri and Pepper teaming up and trying to negotiate with Tony that no, the _entirety_ of Central Park was not necessary for the wedding. A section cordoned off with security would be fine… and would save probably somewhere near hundreds of thousands of dollars. Plus, even the 500 or so guests would not need the entire park to roam free. 

Tony finally agreed to think about it, but Pepper shot Bri a sly little wink that told her to go ahead and get the ball rolling on just the sections between 65th and 86th. Bri nodded, scrawled a quick note and tucked the paper back into her folder before Tony could see it. Two months was short notice, but with Tony’s name, and the caliber of the guest list, Bri knew that the city would only give her a hassle on paper. The second she called up the Parks Department after this meeting, they would bend over backward to clear the whole schedule for Tony (and his bank account) if she wanted them to. 

“Well, enough money talk for today. I think that everything now is left to your lovely, capable hands,” Tony sighed theatrically, as though he had really just lost something dear to him in losing that argument. He picked up one of Bri’s hands and pressed a kiss to the back of it, ever the gentleman … until he shot her a racy wink and ran the tip of his tongue along the vein just under her skin. Pepper smacked his arm while Bri reeled back and pretended to gag, wiping her hand exaggeratedly against her red slacks. He just laughed and jumped up to run to his kitchen and grab the sushi from the fridge. 

“Seriously Pepper, do you need me to call the authorities?” Bri chuckled, shaking her head fondly. 

Pepper scoffed jokingly and rolled her eyes. “If you did I think they’d end up taking me away for a clear case of insanity.” She just shrugged as if to say ‘what can you do?’ and dug into her own folder, taking out a short stack of checks and starting to fill them out according to the spreadsheet that Bri had left out for her perusal. 

The silence was comfortable... until suddenly it wasn’t. Bri’s eyes landed on the clock just as the minute hand switched to 12:24, and, like clockwork, she felt the low hum begin against her skin. 

“Fuck,” she cursed softly, unable to stop the expletive. 

“Language, missy!” Tony snapped, though rather playfully, as he came back in, arms loaded with a veritable buffet of sushi. Bri’s mouth watered. The humming kicked up a notch. Her eyes were suddenly watering too. 

“Sorry Tony, I’m just so fucking hungry,” she forced herself to say with a sarcastic smirk. 

“I should wash your mouth out with soap.”

“Pepper, did you hear that? He wants to shower with **me**!” She squeaked the last word, as the humming suddenly graduated to a buzzing, and there was nothing that she could do about it. 

“I hate to break it to you Bri honey, but you’ve been bumped down to second on Tony’s free pass list,” Pepper said coolly, like nothing odd had happened, though Tony and Bri both stared at her with wide eyes for at least a solid few seconds.

“By **whom**?” Bri demanded, and at least her voice breaking this time just added to the genuine incredulity of her question.

“Uh, I second that question, and also there’s a free pass list?” Tony sounded a little like he was choking, and Bri would have smirked if she wasn’t trying so hard to keep from whimpering. The buzzing had upgraded to a well and true vibrating, and she couldn’t very well stick her hand down her pants and rip the damned things off. Running to the bathroom was also out, that would raise a whole host of questions, and, to be honest, she didn’t trust herself to shift even a little bit without letting some sort of embarrassing noise past her lips. 

She started herself on a steady stream of California rolls, watching Pepper elude Tony’s attempts to figure out who he supposedly wanted to fuck with what she hoped was the correct amount of amusement and not the pained desperation that was currently rioting within her. 

The sudden, brief spike in the vibration wrenched a moan from her chest and unfortunately drew the couple’s attention to her. 

“Good stuff?” Tony chuckled, finally seeming to remember he had brought food in the first place, reaching for the stack of plates he had left next to his knee. 

“There’s a reason this place is my favorite,” Bri said, a bit dryly, but Tony was busy making Pepper a plate while Pepper was sliding her checks into Bri’s folder, and thankfully neither seemed to notice her tone. 

“I’ll have what she’s having,” Pepper chuckled, and Bri’s eyes widened. Fuck, she did not need to have a conversation about faked orgasms a la _When Harry Met Sally_ while trying not to have a real one. But whatever cosmic forces were out there apparently disagreed, as did, apparently, the part of her brain that couldn’t stop ribbing at Tony. 

“Well I hope they aren’t fake, Pepper, or I’ll really have to call the authorities on you. Pain in the ass that he is, Tony should be providing for real en masse.”

Pepper snorted, a rather ungraceful sound for such an elegant woman, and then she was laughing, holding her stomach and kicking her feet like Bri had told the funniest joke in the world.

Personally she thought she could have done better, but it was hard to think clearly when one was trying to keep the vibrator in her pants from getting her off in front of both her boss and, quite frankly, her role model, who just so happened to be her boss’s fiancee. 

All thinking promptly ceased as the vibrating kicked up _again_. Bri’s hands fisted so hard in her pant legs that she heard a few stitches in the seams give. She couldn’t stop her hips from rocking ever so slightly against the friction, because apparently her body had a mind of its own and it _wanted_. 

“Bri?” Tony called her name, and she suddenly realized that he had been talking while all she had heard for the last minute was her own heartbeat in her ears. 

“Hmm? Sorry, really distracted by this sushi,” she said, and it was lame but she was so fucking close. 

The vibrating maxed out with a quiet noise of alert, and Bri was done for. 

“Are you alright? You seem off,” Pepper noted.

“Did anyone else hear that beep?” Tony asked at the same time, lifting his head and peering around.

But Bri couldn’t answer either of them because she was coming. She at least had the foresight to rest her forehead against the edge of the table to hide her face, because this whole thing was mortifying enough without Pepper, of all people, knowing what she looked like in the throes of pleasure. 

She locked her jaw and willed each vertebra to refuse to arch as they so wanted to with a strength she didn’t know she possessed, forcing herself to ride this out silently. There were tears streaming down her cheeks, and fuck she couldn’t breathe, but anything to make this redeemable. She almost managed to pull it off, too, until someone’s hand carded through her hair and she whined in a way that would have made Riley Reid and Abella Danger so fucking jealous. 

Everything froze for a heartbeat, even the damn vibrator because of course it did, until Bri jumped to her feet. 

“Did-” Tony started to ask, but Pepper all but tackled him to the floor to keep him from finishing that question. 

“I’m not feeling well, I think I’m going to take the rest of the afternoon off,” Bri rushed, grabbing her folder and refusing to meet their eyes as she turned to flee.

“Honey, it’s-” Pepper started, but Bri held up a hand. 

“Please don’t say okay. If you need to write me up or something I understand, but I can’t talk about this now,” she whispered, voice tight as she tried her best not to break down and sob. But then it started again, because of course it did, and she spat a curse as her knees buckled. All thoughts of a gracious escape were gone as she booked it to the elevator, jammed the button for her office, and collapsed inside, just thanking God that neither of them tried to follow. 

She took the fourteen precious seconds she had to shove her hand down her pants and press the ‘off’ button for blessed relief, though her body complained as she so rudely yanked herself off of that second climb.

At her desk she flew around in a fury, packing up her bag and pulling on her sunglasses and her sunhat with an air about her that clearly said ‘don’t fucking talk to me right now.’ Everyone got the message and blessedly stayed out of her way, even as she left the building and marched her way towards the nearest subway station. She almost chucked her phone into the street when she finally dug it out of her bag and saw the messages there. She jammed her thumb into the call button so hard she was surprised that the screen didn’t crack. It only rang once, and as soon as she heard it connect she was off. 

“Asshole, I’m going to fucking kill you!”

“Yes, _enough already_ , I was in Tony’s fucking office, you prick!”

“Did you not think to check my text?”

“WHAT? Well when were you going to make me aware of this little fact? I think that’s something that I should be privy to!”

“Hah! You can tell him I’ll kick his ass too, for that brilliant fucking idea of his!”

“Oh you are so fucking lucky you won’t be home when I get there; I’d tear you to fucking pieces with my bare hands. You had better have a full fucking explanation when you call tonight, and you better call tonight, or I’m raining hell down on your ass!” She hung up before she could hear the answer, slamming her feet down hard on each metal stair leading into the subway tunnel to get some of this aggression out before she did something colossally stupid. 

A little old woman touched her elbow to get her attention while they were stood waiting at the platform. “Forgive me, miss, I couldn’t help but overhear your phone conversation. Just a little advice… make him beg for forgiveness,” she said softly, shooting Bri a little wink as the lights from the train finally came around the corner. 

And despite everything, Bri smiled at that. She fucking loved New Yorkers.


	2. The One with the Pizza Peace Offering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not profit off of any Marvel characters or entities, the only thing I own is Bri!  
> Please do not post this anywhere else, I wrote it for Ao3 and do not consent to it being shared without my direct permission.  
> Enjoy! Constructive feedback and positive thoughts/reviews are always welcome!

Bri was half a bottle of wine deep when a knock sounded at her door. After a scalding hot shower, a volley of incredibly pissed off texts followed by a long phone call, and several episodes of The Great British Baking Show, she was feeling a little better. She had decided (while watching contestants whip up a chocolate ganache) that she would call Tony over pizza to apologize and explain. It seemed that moment had come, for no one would be knocking at the door of her apartment except for Tyler, the high schooler who lived a floor below her with his grandmother and worked at the pizza shop two blocks over. 

“I’m coming Ty, let me get my wallet!” She called, dashing into the kitchen and pulling out a fifty. It more than covered the pizza, but she knew he was hoping to go to SUNY in the coming fall, and while she didn’t have a ton to give, she liked to do what she could when the opportunity presented itself. 

Though, when she opened the door it wasn’t Ty at all, but Tony, holding her pizza and a six-pack of the hard cider he knew she liked with a sheepish expression. 

“Can we talk?”

“Did you pay him?”

“Tyler? Yeah of course I did. Sent him off with a hundred for his troubles,” Tony said, as though it was obvious. Bri tried to tuck her own bill out of sight, but he noticed anyway and just offered her a little smile, pointedly shifting his weight onto his other foot. 

She stepped back to let him in with a somewhat sarcastic sweep of her arm, though it was a bit dulled by the fact that her stomach currently felt like it was at one second burning in her throat, at the next resting in the soles of her feet. 

Tony, for his part, sank into a little bow, and accepted the invitation, breezing into her apartment like he owned the place… which he did, technically. 

“Pizza?” she offered weakly, suddenly not quite hungry but forcing herself to open the box and slide out a slice of Meat Lover’s. She could only manage to nibble on the end.

“Just a slice, if you’re offering. I’m watching my figure,” he said, running his hands over his stomach and then proceeding to take two pieces out and pile them onto his plate. Bri couldn’t help but snort, and he turned such a warm smile on her then that she almost melted. 

Clearing her throat as the silence bordered on awkward, Bri swallowed the tiny bite of pizza she had taken and gathered her courage. “I apologize for my … inappropriate behavior at work. I really did mean it when I said I understood if you were going to write me up.”

“Who, exactly, would I tell on you to my dear? The mayor? The governor? Hell, the president? No thank you.”

“But… I mean I know you own the company and all, and technically deal with all the write-ups, but I don’t want preferential treatment because I’m your favorite.”

“Don’t let Happy hear you say that. He might kiss you; he's so glad someone finally took his mantle.”

“Tony! I’m being serious. I fucked up. It would make me feel better if we didn’t pretend it never happened.”

Tony sighed, putting his now-empty plate down and turning to look directly at Bri across the island in her kitchen. “I can’t write you up.”

“Why not?” Bri demanded, and she knew she was being stubborn. Anyone else would have taken the opportunity to get on with things in a heartbeat. But people already thought Tony favored her; she didn’t need to have it explicitly proven.

“Because I would have to retroactively write up just about everyone that works at Stark Tech. And I don’t fancy giving myself a strike for jerking off during a tedious board meeting that drags on forever over the phone. Or punishing the multitude of the tech guys who use their lunch breaks to ‘chat’ with their girlfriends, real and virtual, on my computers. Or the guys in the workshops who go to the bathroom together. Or basically the entire HR and marketing departments, who share and read erotica like they’re running an NC-17 bookclub. Or hell, even Happy for defiling the backseat of my car, or Pepper for wanting to join the mile-high club on the company jet. Shall I go on?”

“I get your point,” Bri grumbled, though the feeling of worry in her chest was starting to loosen. Enough that she could take a larger bite and swallow it without feeling like she was going to retch everywhere. 

“So you understand why I’m not going to write you up, then?”

“Because Tony Stark is a man who doesn’t give a fuck about being appropriate; in fact, he delights in being not-so whenever he can, so long as shit gets done?” Bri asked, a bit of a mocking edge to her voice, though she was notably trying to suppress a smile. 

“Ah, see? I knew I kept you around for more than just your rack,” Tony chuckled, ducking the empty paper plate that Bri flung at his head. 

“Well apparently, Mr. Stark, I’m no longer your first consideration for the glorious threesome Pepper will let you have one fateful day. So I guess my tits no longer serve a purpose.”

“Oh baby, for the threesome? No one will ever, **ever** , surpass you. And I mean that.”

“Not even Natasha?”

“Not even Natasha. You, my dear, are far more lovely, and far less terrifying.”

And just like that, they were good, demolishing the pizza while trading good-natured barbs, Bri tucked into Tony’s side like she belonged there (in the most platonic way, of course. She was firmly of the belief that he and Pepper were meant to be.) 

One in the morning came and found them curled up like kittens watching Groundhog Day, the second in their streak of Bill Murray movies. 

“You never did tell me who replaced me,” Bri murmured into the top of Tony’s head. She was usually the big spoon when they lay like this. 

“Pep didn’t tell me who she _knows_ it is. Plus, even if I knew, you’d need to spill too, sister.”

“I am never, ever going to tell you anything about what happened today.”

“Yesterday.”

“Oh shit, yesterday then. Well yeah, you aren’t getting anything out of me about that. If you wanna play Sherlock Holmes, which I wish you wouldn’t but I know you will, fine, but I am not giving you a single clue, hint, shred of information, nothing.”

“Why, is it someone embarrassing?”

“Yeah, it’s the guy who puked on Santa at the mall last Christmas when we went shopping.” 

“Is it someone I know?”

“Mhm, it’s Pepper.”

“Oh don’t tease me like that. Is it someone old and rich and on the verge of dying?” 

“Caught me. It’s you,” Bri deadpanned, trying to be as annoying as she could so they could go back to watching Bill’s eternal torment in peace. 

“Well, for that I won’t tell you mine, even when I figure it out. You’ll have to feel second-rate inadequacy forever, missy.”

“I’ll just ask Pepper. She’ll one hundred percent tell me if it means I get to knock you on your ass.”

“Don’t forget, though, Pepper knows what you sound like when you come too.”

“No she doesn’t. Neither do you. That was _nothing_ , Tony. I will say this much, whoever it is for me has heard me _scream_. On this couch a few times, in fact.”

Bri laughed evilly at the absolutely pitiful groan Tony let out, and just rested her chin on his head to finish the movie. They fell asleep like that, and were both late to work the next morning.


	3. The One with the Interrogations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I welcome constructive and helpful feedback, and I would adore any positive comments and support to let me know that my first attempt at actually publishing one of my fics is going well!
> 
> This is perhaps my favorite chapter, so I hope you all enjoy it!

“Who could it be?” Tony asked, staring at the ceiling above his bed, still fully clothed, hands intertwined and resting on his stomach.

“You still haven’t let this go? It’s literally yesterday’s news.” Pepper rolled her eyes as she joined him, though she slid under the covers and actually settled in to go to sleep.

“Of course not! One of my- OUR- favorite people spontaneously comes in my office after having been lacking any kind of romance for the past year and a half, and I’m supposed to let it go?” He paused, but Pepper knew he was by no means done so didn’t bother stepping in. “Do you think it was a vibrator or something else?”

“Tony!”

“What? You have one!”

“As do a lot of women, but not many of them particularly want their boss talking to his fiancee about it!”

“Well she gave me license to figure it out,” Tony said, his jaw set the way it did when he had completely made up his mind. 

“Good luck doing that without getting slapped, Tony. Even Bri has limits. I will not be helping you,” Pepper sighed, rubbing her eyes and turning to pull the cord on her lamp. “Goodnight.”

“Night Pep,” Tony answered, though he was still lying there staring at his ceiling long after she had fallen asleep. He was going to figure it out. It was just a matter of how and when. 

\----------

“Hey, can you put this request in with Labelle, my executive manager?”

“Sure, where can I find him?”

So Mikayla was out. 

\----------

“Demitri, as you know the company benefit is coming up. Are you taking anyone?” 

“Oh, yeah I just put in my request with HR for my husband Cameron to come with me. If that’s alright?” 

“Perfectly fine! Just trying to make sure everybody who wants to come can. I’ll get in touch with Ruthie today and tell her to pass him, boss’s orders.” 

“Thank you Tony. Is that all?” 

“Yup!”

Well, that was a name crossed hard off the list. 

\----------

“Can you take this to Bri’s desk for me?”

“Oh.. well…”

“Is there a problem?”

“I don’t think she really wants me anywhere near her desk.”

“And why is that?”

“The last time I spoke to her she slapped me in the face and threatened to uh… remove certain parts of my anatomy if she ever heard my voice again.”

“Oh. I’ll do it then.”

He crossed Marcel off the list, but wrote a note next to it to ask Bri about that story when he got the chance. 

\----------

“Pep, I have gone through everyone!” Tony moaned, slumped against the wall of the elevator. She just arched an eyebrow, not bothering to look up from the tablet she was typing on. “I mean, who else could it possibly be outside of the office?”

Pepper didn’t have a chance to answer that one, not that she really wanted to, as the doors opened, and there was an unexpected guest waiting for the elevator at Bri’s side, the two of them smiling and laughing brightly.

“Tony!”

“Thor, what are you doing here?”

“Miss Cambria and I have had a lunch date planned for a while now. I am here to pick her up and escort her to the restaurant!” Thor answered jovially. Bri nodded with a smug grin. Tony found himself rendered speechless.

He stared hard at the back of Bri’s head the whole ride down to the bottom floor, and watched as she and Thor left the lobby arm in arm, heading down the street with several people turning to watch the God of Thunder pass among them.

“How was I so fucking blind?” He asked, a rhetorical question, but of course that was what Pepper thought deemed an answer.

“Probably because you’ve skipped every appointment I’ve made for you with an ophthalmologist in the past three years.”

“It’s an Avenger! That’s why she won’t tell me! God Pep, it’s probably Thor!”

\----------

It wasn’t Thor.

Tony knew because he had set up a near maniacal scheme to figure this out, starting with the easiest Avengers to crack down to the hardest/least likely. Thor was, predictably, the easiest. It was a simple conversation really, Tony had straight out asked him if he had ever engaged in ‘sexual activities’ with Bri. Thor laughed and shook his head, saying something along the lines of ‘Jane wouldn’t have been happy, and by the time we ended our relations and I had my opportunity, she was besotted with someone else. She politely told me so when she rejected my advances.’

\----------

Funnily enough, Fury was the next to crack.

Tony caught him glancing at Bri’s ass as she walked out of the office, and couldn’t resist a jab at the man.

“You’d ever hit that Fury?”

“I’d be a dumb motherfucker to try and get with someone less than half my age, Tony,” Fury shot back keenly, “Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a nice view though.”

“Best watch yourself before I call CPS then. And that view is apparently taken.”

“I know,” Fury said, and with that he turned and left. And Tony chased him like a dog after a bone down the hallway.

\----------

Tony had ruled Peter out the second he popped into his head, and didn’t even bother asking. The age difference was disturbing, and he had faith neither he nor Bri would disagree. 

\----------

Though… the subject of Peter brought up May, and May brought up Happy. And what a way to corner him into admitting that something was going on there, Tony thought gleefully to himself.

So over a couple of sandwiches on the jet back from a conference, when Happy had no possible escape route except flinging himself from the emergency exit, Tony cornered him.

“Hey… are you seeing anyone?” he asked, trying to be nonchalant. Judging his performance on the way Happy’s eyes narrowed, he didn’t succeed.

“Nothing serious, at the moment.”

“Ahh, so that’s why every day at lunch you’re gone, with no message as to where you went or when you’ll be back.”

“I go to the Italian sub shop on 6th. There’s a woman I meet there who reminds me of my grandmother. We do crosswords together.”

“Mhm. Does she also happen to wear Tom Ford’s Jasmin Rouge perfume, and rub herself all over you?”

“How-” Happy started, though he caught himself. “I couldn’t tell. I don’t know what that smells like.”

“Oh sure you do. I know you bought some for Bri last Christmas, and she loves the stuff. Wears it every day. I must say, excellent choice on your part. The notes of cinnamon and orange that come out are mouthwatering. I certainly would be hard-pressed to find one I’d rather have linger on me,” Tony chuckled, taking a swig of water for dramatic effect. “And Bri’s gone on lunches too. How … coincidental.” Happy didn’t need to know that he was lying, that Bri spent nearly every lunch with him and Pepper in his office.

“Oh Tony, come off it. She’s a good kid, and she puts you on your ass frequently, but she’s too young for me. For _either_ of us. Probably put us into an early grave.”

“That is true. And may I remind you, I’m getting married. I have no desire to pursue anything with her, unless Pepper okays it, which she has yet to do. But, now that I think of it, I know someone else wears that perfume. May does… doesn’t she Happy?”

“How’d you know that?” Happy shot, unable to stop himself.

“The kid needed advice for a birthday present. With Bri’s love of the stuff, I figured it was a safe bet.”

“I don’t want anyone to know about this Tony. Or I’m sure Pepper and Stephen would love to have a little chat with you,” Happy said evenly, arching an eyebrow. Tony blanched a little bit, but shook it off. (It hadn’t taken too long to figure out who Pepper meant when she said Bri had been replaced… and he’d heard the two women talking about it three days after ‘the incident,’ as he’d coined it.)

“Of course brother,” he deferred, holding out his water bottle for Happy to meet with his own.

“Cheers,” Happy said, a bit dryly, but he didn’t seem to be actually mad. “But anyway, why’d you bring up Bri if you knew it was May?”

“What’s spoken of on the jet stays on the jet,” Tony warned, waiting for Happy’s nod of understanding to jump into the story of ‘the incident’. 

\----------

Vision and Wanda were so in love it was sick. Tony didn’t waste breath on asking. He found it hard to believe that his AI would be into threesomes, in spite of his best programming efforts when he had made JARVIS. Did the robot even have the equipment? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

At least, he didn’t bother asking specifically about Bri. Vision, however, had once been in this building, the eyes and ears of everything. It gave Tony an idea.

“Hypothetically, how easy would it be for an outside signal, relatively weak, no major strength needed for the job, to get into the tower undetected?” Tony asked over a beer. Well, he was having a beer. Vision was staring out the window, probably daydreaming about Wanda in binary code.

“That depends. But in general, not very. FRIDAY should be able to trace it if it comes from an outside source. What might be tricky is if whoever it originates from has it running through your network, hitting your servers first then sending the signal from within your own infrastructure.”

“You mean if someone is using my technology?”

“Yes, exactly as though the remote and its corresponding device were manufactured by STARK Tech.”

“Remote?”

Tony swore he saw Vision smirk, but he was gone before he had a chance to ask anything else. 

\----------

Rhodey just snorted an amused ‘As if, Tony,” and continued spanking him in their Call of Duty match. 

\----------

T’challa was in Wakanda, and as far as Tony knew, had only ever met Bri in passing. She didn’t seem like the type that would be contented by a long-distance relationship anyway, at least not for the long term. And as King, where the hell was T’challa going to go? He nixed that idea pretty quickly. 

\----------

Speaking of long-distance, Carol had jetted off to the far reaches of the universe, and Peter Quill and the rest of the Guardians were out of the galaxy too. A bit out of range for any tech Tony knew of. Though, if Bri had a dildo that spanned dimensions, he was going to need to have a chat with her and get his hands on it, **not** in the pervy way.

Well... mostly not in the pervy way. 

\----------

Bruce was unlikely, but Tony hesitated to bring it up anyways. He didn’t want to assume that the jolly green giant was the most effective turn off ever, although it seemed like a safe bet. However, when he went to visit Bruce in his lab and found him on his knees with Helen Cho spread out on the table, he was pleasantly surprised. He always thought the guy could use a release of some tension, and that crush had not been the most subtle. Still, Tony made sure to bring disinfecting wipes when he called ahead to visit the next day to actually discuss work. Bruce’s cheeks lit up when Tony made a show of avoiding that one table, and Tony simply clapped him on the back.

“Good for you man. You deserve it.”

Tony was the only one not surprised when Bruce began bringing Helen along with her hand in his. 

\----------

Sam didn’t seem amused by Tony’s posturing and vague allusions.

“What the hell Tony. For a genius, as you call yourself, you sure act fucking stupid sometimes man. What are you trying to get outta me right now?”

“Bri seems to like you, a lot. You guys went to a baseball game the other night, didn’t you?”

“Basketball. But yea, we did. What about it?”

“Well… just… what are your intentions?” Tony couldn’t just ask Sam. He knew that would get him punched in the face.

“My intentions? Man, she’s my friend. She drinks me under the table, watches ESPN, and packs a mean right hook. I intend to enjoy that stuff with her. Just like I now intend to tell her you’re sniffing around trying to figure out who’s been in her pants.”

“How do you know?”

“Like I said man, we’re friends. I know shit that would blow your mind. Now get out. I’m not stupid enough to spill.”

Sam did indeed tell Bri, and Tony did indeed get slapped in the face (Bri had, apparently, heard too many people talking about ‘the incident,’ and was not quite so happy with Tony’s Holmesian skills,) and Pepper only scoffed at him when he retreated with his tail between his legs. But he was so close, he had to see it through (and Bri hadn’t told him to stop, as he figured she might have, which was as close to her explicit permission to continue as he was ever going to get. Knowing her, it was likely fun to watch him run around like a chicken with its head cut off.)

\----------

“Dude, I wouldn’t do that! I mean, Hope aside, I wouldn’t sleep with Bri, like ever!” Scott all but shouted, red-faced.

Tony felt a bit indignant at that on Bri’s behalf. He made himself pause in stirring his coffee until he felt sure he wasn’t going to throw it, and then looked across the breakfast bar at the other man. “Is there something wrong with her?” he asked, and clapped himself on the back mentally for maintaining a perfectly level tone. Pepper would be proud … well not of his line of questioning, but certainly of his self-control.

“No, no no no!” Scott chuckled, awkwardly, actually pulling at the collar of his shirt like he was in some bad ‘90s sitcom. “It’s just… dude you’re like the richest guy in the world. I don’t really want any Stark missiles aimed at my house for sleeping with your daughter… which I haven’t!”

Tony could only blink at him a moment, and it must have put Scott on edge because he started rambling as fast as he could.

“She’s a beautiful girl, really she is Tony, but my daughter’s sixteen. Bri’s what, twenty-two? I’m old enough to be her father, not that I’d want to be because you’re… you are… and-”

Tony bent over, clutching his stomach and laughing harder than he had in a long, long time. 

When he finally straightened himself up, at least five minutes later, to explain to Scott that Bri was **not** his daughter, not with Pepper nor with some mysterious unnamed woman from his past, and she was, in fact, twenty-eight so Scott could at least feel a bit better about thinking her attractive, he couldn’t stop feeling grateful that at least he wasn’t the most clueless out of the lot of them. 

\----------

Because his leads with the tech weren’t going anywhere, he turned towards… alternate explanations. 

“Do you think, hypothetically of course, that your magic could be used in other ways?” Tony asked over tea in the study of the sanctum, regarding Strange with a curious look in his eyes. 

“Other ways like what?” Strange was at least humoring him, and God, Tony couldn’t help but wish he could have met him in the time he and Pepper were on a break. He would never cheat on her, (much as he and Bri played,) and loved her to death three thousand times over, but what he wouldn’t have given to have Strange ride him into the ground when he was unattached. “Tony?” Strange’s deep voice broke him from his reverie and he blinked.

“ _Pleasurable_ ways?” 

He expected Strange to look revolted, but instead the good doctor blinked, rubbing his chin with two long fingers. Tony nearly drooled. Bri had never stood a chance against _this_. 

“I’ve honestly never considered it. It would be an interesting hypothesis to examine, I don’t imagine any reason why it _wouldn’t_ be beneficial in that area. It can function…” And he was off, and so was Tony, lost in his own head again. He hadn’t been this hard up for it since college, and even that was a questionable comparison. “Did you come here just to proposition me Tony?” Strange asked, a knowing gleam in his eye and damn Tony had been caught. 

“Actually, no. I was trying to figure out who’s fucking my… well Bri, and turning up empty so far. And I’m not propositioning you, though I am goddamn curious, but I have Pepper, and I’m marrying Pepper and will not succumb to you…” he was rambling, he knew it, but he couldn’t stop until Strange chuckled. 

“If she were okay with it, or perhaps even wanted to be involved, would it still feel like succumbing?”

“She wouldn’t be… would she?” Tony wished he didn’t sound so hopeful. Suddenly hopeful recollections of his free pass list were swimming so tantalizingly through his brain.

“How little you know Tony. Perhaps you should ask her,” Strange said, and before Tony knew what was happening, his phone was in his hand with Pepper’s number already dialed. 

“Tony?” She picked up on the fourth ring (not that he had been counting.)

“I’ve got a real quick question Pep,” He choked out, forgetting how to breathe as he watched Strange uncross his ankle from his knee and instead lean back in his chair with his legs spread, an invitation if Tony had ever seen one. 

\----------

“Nice hickey Tony!” Clint called out the next morning at breakfast, and Tony didn’t even glower. He had just stumbled back to the tower maybe an hour ago, and God his brain was still operating in some fucked out haze. He looked a little dizzy even just sitting there. Magic, it turned out, had quite a few _interesting_ uses that he was sure weren’t legal in the wizarding world, or whatever the fuck it was called. Though, he wasn’t out of it enough to miss this golden opportunity. Clint was hardly ever alone. 

“Hey, have you fucked Bri?” Tact, however, was still lost to the fog. Clint choked on his cereal. 

“Uh good morning to you too. No, I haven’t. Why do you ask?”

“Because someone made her come in my office and I don’t know who!” 

“She fucked someone in your office? Oh, fuck! I am so winning the next round of Never Have I Ever!” Clint cackled. 

“No! That’s the problem! She was… I was there… something beeped…”

“Oh yeah dude, the vibrating panties. She loves those things. Never seen her more excited than when Nat gave them to her,” Clint chuckled. Tony was staring at him so hard his eyes were surely in danger of popping out of his head. 

“The what now?” Tony’s voice was so high pitched it actually made Clint’s earpieces ring, and as the marksman adjusted them, he realized what he had done. Cursing under his breath, he turned his aids off and kept his back to Tony. He shoveled his Fruit Loops into his mouth faster than he ever had, and all but sprinted out of the kitchen, gesturing wildly at his ears as Tony continued to holler his name. 

\----------

Natasha scared the shit out of him, but after what Clint had said, he couldn’t not ask her what she knew. And come on, the thought of her possibly being the one holding the remote to said vibrating panties was simultaneously terrifying and hot as hell. 

“I’m not talking Tony,” she deadpanned as he attempted to corner her in the elevator.

“Oh but come on. Vibrating panties? Where’d you get them? I want some for Pepper! As a wedding gift!”

She leveled him with a gaze colder than a Siberian winter. “You’ve come so far, I’m certainly not going to stop you from finishing this quest.” Her smirk was wicked as she stepped off the elevator. “Ну что, удачи тебе, Тони.”

\----------

That evil witch. She was really going to make him ask Bucky fucking Barnes, the two hundred pounds of vibranium, rage and multiple guns stashed on his person. Though they would be a stunning couple, he did have to admit. Maybe that savagery in his expression carried over to the bedroom? 

Tony shuddered. 

\----------

The first time he tried to say anything, Bucky just stared at him until Tony gulped and retreated, not really wanting the clenched metal fist that rested on Bucky’s thigh to suddenly find itself punched through his stomach and wrapped around his spine, or some other terminator shit. 

The second time Bucky at least greeted Tony and said a few brief words about how things were going, but got up and walked out as soon as Tony brought up Bri. 

The third time, Bucky slammed the fridge closed and whirled to face him. “If I was fucking her, Tony, why would I ever tell you?”

Tony was momentarily speechless. 

“I’ll tell you this once, and you better fucking listen. I would rather you never think of my dick, out of fear you’d somehow manage to give me syphilis without even touching me, but I certainly would never, ever, want you to think of me and Bri. Not only because she deserves better than that, but because, Tony, if I was fucking her, why would I want you to know that? Why would I want you to think about the sounds she made in your office, but with the new image of me between her legs? Why would I want you to wonder just how fucking tight she is, or how her legs fucking tremble as she rides-”

“Had enough yet, Tony?” Bri asked, and Tony didn’t know when she had appeared at the doorway, but there she was, arms crossed, something of a dangerous edge in her eyes that suggested his time playing detective was over. But the corner of her mouth was twitching.

“You- Bucky…”

“He knew you were coming for him. Someone may have alerted him. Really someone may have alerted most of the people you’ve talked to. You beat me to a couple of ‘em, Happy and Scott, mostly, but Nat, Clint, Bucky, Sam, Vision, Stephen,” that last name she added a bit too keenly, “they were all in the loop about your interrogation mission.” 

“You really were never gonna tell me. Is it even anyone I would know, or some random person?”

“You do know that that would be telling you… right?” Bucky scoffed from behind him, sounding very much like he was debating if Tony could really lay claim to the title of genius. 

“I admire your dedication. But there are some things that I’d like to keep to myself. You already know literally everything else-”

“Not everything!”

“What’s my middle name?”

“Naomi.”

“How did my cousin die?”

“Fallon or Hadley?”

“Hadley.”

“Car crash.”

“How many tequila shots can I take before I need to sit down?”

“Six.”

“What’s my bra size?”

“36 C.” 

“See? Tony, there’s probably a handful of things you don’t know about me, most of them inconsequential like the name of my pet fish when I was eight. I’d like to have one thing to myself for just a little while, alright?” she asked, her eyes imploringly locked on him. 

She wasn’t mad, he knew that. A mad Bri was one who cursed him out seven ways to Sunday and stormed out, usually with a couple of very menacing threats thrown in, that he knew too well she would follow through on. She sounded more tired than anything, in the same way that Pepper and Happy sometimes did. In the way that his parents used to, usually on their way out the door to some foreign country or huge convention, or really anywhere away from him. The fear that she would walk out like they did was near paralyzing. 

“I can drop it. You should have just asked me to stop,” he whispered quietly, dropping his gaze to her feet.  
Bucky, thankfully, seemed to have the sense he was intruding, and made a graceful exit, brushing by Bri, whispering something Tony couldn’t make out under his breath before disappearing down the hall. 

“I was kind of having fun toying with you, honestly. So don’t fault yourself. I could have asked you to stop, but I didn’t. I’m not mad at you. I just realized that … I don’t know, I’m just enjoying what I’ve got going for me without the involvement of a ton of other people. And even telling some of the others about you asking around about the ‘incident’ was raising more questions than I really wanted to answer. So it’d really mean a lot to me if you could just give it a break, ok?” She crossed the floor to stand in front of him, lifting his chin with two fingers to catch his eye. 

“Ok,” he said simply in answer, and a soft smile touched one side of her lips. 

“Thank you, Tony.” Her arms wrapped around him and she pulled him into a brief but strong hug, before leaning back to look at him. “Now come on. Bucky and Steve were planning to watch Top Gun tonight, and I really want to see that volleyball scene right now,” she chuckled, letting him out of the hug but promptly grabbing his arm to pull him along towards the living room.

There was a small crowd gathered in front of the massive TV. Bucky and Natasha were both getting situated under a huge blanket on one of the couches, and Tony figured that might have just become the most dangerous location in his entire building. Clint and Steve were sharing an enormous bowl of popcorn on another couch, and Bri threw herself on the beanbag that was right in front of them, promptly inviting herself to take a handful. Rhodey and Pepper were on the biggest couch dead center in front of the TV, and they both made a show of scooting over and patting the middle cushion for Tony. He gladly took the invitation, sinking down into the luxurious leather and drawing Pepper into his side, casting a glance around the room as the lights dimmed. 

Steve, of all people, caught his attention as he handed a beer down to Bri. He was the last person Tony would have had to ask. But Tony scoffed to himself at that. 

There was a reason he had put Steve last from the beginning of his whole inquisition. Even if Bri hadn’t asked him to stop, he wouldn’t have dared offend the Captain’s delicate sensibilities by insinuating him in any sort of vulgar act. He didn’t want to ever be subjected to Steve Rogers lecturing him on good, American morals, and how inappropriate the whole thing was, and how Bri shouldn’t have ever done that at work, and how she was a beautiful ‘dame’ but he was still mentally engaged to Peggy back in the ’40s, so he had never even thought of her that way.

So Tony forced himself to be content with not knowing, at least for now, and reclined back into the couch. Besides, his wedding was in just a few days. He really did have things he needed to prioritize over this whole futile scavenger hunt. Pepper’s presence at his side only reminded him of that tenfold, and he leaned over to press a kiss to her head, closing his eyes a moment and allowing himself to bask in the serenity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard stuff:  
> I do not profit off of any Marvel characters or entities, the only thing I own is Bri!  
> Please do not post this anywhere else, I wrote it for Ao3 and do not consent to it being shared without my direct permission.


	4. The One with the Wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to hear from you all as to how you're liking this, whether it be supportive and constructive criticism or a comment with something you've enjoyed so far!
> 
> I wrote the celebration I wanted, the 'gathering on the lake' that Endgame cheated us out of!

The wedding was beautiful. Of course it was, if only for the sheer amount of money poured into it. But it was more than that. Bri knew that it was more than that. She didn’t want to be arrogant, but really she had done well in planning this. The scenery was breathtaking, the guests were ravishing, and the whole thing was blessedly private. Surrounding the 3.2 mile perimeter of the sections of Central Park they had rented out were white gossamer curtains, which effectively blocked the public out and kept the celebration in. Of course from the tops of buildings nearby a camera flash would occasionally go off, but it was far less harrowing to be photographed from at least hundreds of feet away, rather than having cameras shoved up your nose, down your throat, and into any other orifice people could get their greedy little lenses at. 

They had finally decided on the Bethesda Terrace for the ceremony, and they had gone all out draping the columns in baby’s breath and red and yellow tulips (the colors were at Tony’s insistence.) There were some four-hundred-odd guests who were clustered around the Bethesda fountain, all watching with bated breath as Pepper made her walk, emerging from beneath the terrace in a gorgeous white lace gown, clutching a bouquet of red and yellow tulips as she climbed up the stairs to meet Tony on the landing above with a radiant grin. 

They had agreed on no bridesmaids and no groomsmen (for which Bri was secretly grateful, because much as she loved Pepper and Tony, and gorgeous as all the decorations turned out to be, yellow did not look good on her in the slightest,) so it was just them and the priest as they started their vows. 

Pepper’s made nearly everyone cry, including Tony, Bri noted, when he tried to subtly wipe his eyes on the deep red sleeve of his tux. They were touching and beautiful, and despite the pain in her ass that he was, every single word spoke to how much Pepper valued and adored Tony with her entire being. She spoke with commitment to honesty and trust and, above all else, love, and Bri had to fight so, so hard to not turn and seek out the eyes she could feel locked onto the back of her head. But this was for Pepper and Tony, and she wouldn’t ruin it by being selfish. 

Though, as soon as Tony started talking, Bri kind of forgot about everything else, because she was so proud of him. He had rapidly become one of her best friends, and to see him up there, talking seriously about how much Pepper meant to him, made Bri melt into her seat a little bit. His vows were touching, and had a significant percentage of those in attendance renewing the waterworks. Happy was blubbering like a baby on Bri’s immediate left, and she silently put her hand on his leg, smiling softly when he grabbed hold of it like he needed the support. He probably did, she reckoned. Hell, she did too. And then Tony went and broke the sedately profound moment with an innuendo (though at least it was tasteful,) and sniffles turned to laughter. Clearly sensing that he had brought the attitude back to one appropriate of the party he largely wanted this to be, Tony put Pepper’s ring on with a flourish, wrapped his arms around her, and swooped her low to claim their first kiss as a married couple. 

Bri jumped to her feet, Happy right on her heels, and then everyone was standing, hollering and cheering and stomping their feet. Even Fury, Hill, and Bucky deigned to stand and clap, and Bri was certain she saw Natasha shout ‘congratulations’ with a genuine grin. And Pepper and Tony never stopped smiling.

The whole procession underwent a gradual shift over to Sheep Meadow, where three long tables formed a ‘U’ shape around one end of a huge dancefloor. Place cards were technically set, but as people began to congregate for their meal as the sun began to slip past the horizon, several notably shifted to keep conversations going or, in a few cases, to keep apparent nemeses apart. 

They forewent formal speeches at dinner, though Tony, of course, made one anyways, full of the pomp and arrogance that had been absent from his vows, as if to remind everyone that yes, he did love Pepper with all his heart, but he was still Tony, and neither of those facts was ever going to change. 

Natasha actually stood up first after him, leading a surprisingly soft and warm toast to Pepper specifically, which Bri wholeheartedly supported, showing her agreement by leaning across both Happy and Tony to clink her glass against the new bride’s.

Happy said a few words about growth and change and whatnot, looking a few seats down at a blushing May all the while. Peter looked vaguely green by the end of it.

Rhodey gave a speech about Tony that maybe might have made Bri fall a little bit in love with him, though she kind of knew she already was to have stuck around for this long. And when Tony looked over at her like he could feel her thinking about him in any sort of fond way and shot her a wink, she figured he was a little in love with her too. 

It was that thought that made her stand up, holding a hand out as Rhodey finished his speech. He tossed the mic over with a grin, nodding to her as he took his seat again. That oddly fortified her nerves, and Bri rolled her shoulders back, aware of everyone watching her expectantly. 

“Harley and Peter, you both turned eighteen last month, right?” she called down the table. They were sitting next to each other, and they both nodded with wide eyes, likely aware that they were the youngest ones here and things were about to take a hard right turn into rather adult territory. Everyone else seemed mildly amused that this whole thing had lasted this long before doing so.

Tony, for his part, had figured it out quickly, and tipped his head back to dramatically let out a whoop before planting his elbows on the table and staring at Bri with his best listening face, even batting his eyelashes at her. 

“You’re a dick,” she shot, momentarily forgetting that she still held the microphone, though she immediately won support from a solid half of the audience in the forms of whistles and cheers.

“Ok, so I figured since Tony’s received nothing but _glowing_ praise up to this point, I, functioning as the voice of reason, need to remind us all who we’re talking about here,” she snickered, drawing out the waiting silence after with a little too much glee, but fuck it this was fun. “This, ladies and gents, is the all-too-true story of how Tony, while planning his own wedding, got his greedy little hands in both my pants, not in that way, and the pants of another Avenger, yes in that way.” And she was off. 

Her cheeks were red the whole time she talked, and somewhere around the time when she got to their making up in her apartment (managing to make it sound far more explicit than it had been with great relish,) Tony stood up and grabbed both her hand and the mic and pulled her over next to him so they could embarrass themselves together. For the most part they avoided names, though they totally threw Scott under the bus for thinking that they were father and daughter, and Tony shot a none-too-subtle look at Stephen as they got to that part of the story. Bucky and Natasha both raised their hands when parts of the tale pertained to them, as if claiming them, while everyone else was rather content to just listen to the two perverted idiots with the microphone as they basically argued their way through the whole thing. Everyone, excluding Thor (Asgard, as they had come to learn, was fucking wild) and the two former KGB assassins, but _definitely_ including Tony, had some color in their face by the end of the wild recounting, ranging from the soft pink of Wanda’s cheeks to the bright red of Erik Selvig’s. 

“To wrap this up,” Bri chuckled, wrenching the mic out of Tony’s grip and retreating back to her seat, “I just want to say that Tony is, at the best of times, an immense pain in the ass, somewhat of a whore, and, I’ve got to give it to him, one hell of a determined detective. Even if he never did figure it out. Just goes to show that the billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist himself is, indeed, a human after all!” She held her champagne flute up high in the air, leading a loud, rowdy toast to Tony, and effectively ending the speech portion of the night on a raucous note. 

Following dinner was cake, a massive six-tiered confection that wait staff had to climb ladders to cut into slices, passing them down into waiting hands below. Pepper had been very adamant that if Tony even thought about smearing it on her or her dress there would be no ‘wedding night’ to speak of, and he had rightly taken her to be serious. 

Bri, unfortunately, could only vaguely threaten to quit, which they both knew she wasn’t going to do, so she spent five minutes weaving in and out of guests and tearing around the central set-up of the wedding while avoiding Tony like she was going for the next Olympic slalom team. She would have made it out unscathed too, if Happy and Rhodey hadn’t caught her, one taking each arm, holding her still like she was awaiting a death sentence. 

“Traitors!” she wailed, her ridiculous heels scrambling uselessly against the dancefloor as Tony approached with a disturbingly gleeful air about him, his bright yellow slice of cake sitting menacingly on the plate he held in front of his chest. 

“Better you than us, Bri,” Rhodey grunted, the elbow she managed to throw into his gut knocking the wind out of him. 

Happy had the foresight to immobilize her arm before she could do the same to him. “You’re his favorite, Bri. That means you’ve got to deal with shit like this so the rest of us don’t!” he chuckled, sounding far too amused by the whole thing. 

“Well I don’t want to be, you take it back Happy! He was fine before I got here, the two of you can go back to normal!”

Her pleas fell on deaf ears, and she ended up with a neck and chest smeared with Italian meringue buttercream frosting that Tony promptly offered to lick off, which earned him a rather hard shove to the chest. 

He careened backward into Peter, whose cake went flying into May’s hair, and then it was anarchy. Cake was flying everywhere; people were running for cover, ducking behind chairs, and sprinting off towards the sections of the park that were still part of the wedding but lacked the immense population of guests who were rapidly devolving into guerrilla warfare tactics. Bri managed to shove handfuls of cake down the back of Tony’s dress shirt, streaks of red and yellow staining the material like a badly-made tie-dye, and then successfully evaded him as he chased her around a second time, shaking a bottle of champagne at her menacingly. 

Pepper, Natasha, Bucky, Fury, Coulson, Hill, and Rogers were all watching from the sidelines, and though they were certainly within range, six of the seven gave off such strong ‘don’t even fucking think about it’ attitudes that no one dared throw a piece anywhere in that general direction, lest a rogue bit of frosting turned the cake murder into an actual homicide. 

Half an hour later the cake was depleted, everyone who hadn’t made an early escape had some remnants of the battle somewhere on their person, and there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t thoroughly enjoying themselves. The music for the dancing portion of the evening kicked up from the summer stage, and while some people made their way to the tables, searching desperately for a clean napkin or corner of a tablecloth to clear the debris from their clothes and faces, several others just embraced the mess and started to pair off. 

May and Happy, both resembling a Pollock painting, swayed together easily, her head tucked against his collarbone, her hair staining the scruff of his beard a rather fetching orange. Bruce and Helen were off in the corner, having adopted more of a formal frame but looking lovely together all the while. Wanda and Vision were floating above the mess, spinning slowly like a pair of ballet dancers in a music box. Tony, having finally put the bottle down, approached Bri with a hand held out. 

“Shouldn’t your first dance be with your wife?” she snorted, raising an eyebrow at him, though she took his hand anyway. 

“As if she would deign to dance with me right now. I’m a mess, we said fuck tradition from the beginning, and I’m going to dance with you before your mysterious suitor sweeps you off your feet and takes you away from me,” Tony explained all in one breath, ushering her out onto a relatively clean spot of the dancefloor like he was making a grand entrance into a packed ballroom.

“How do you know he’s here?” Bri asked, turning to step into him, resting the hand that wasn’t in his on his shoulder, letting his other hand come to sit on her waist and pull her in half a step more. She raised an eyebrow at that and he just grinned. 

“Because, my dear, I know you. I know when you’re trying to pretend you aren’t looking for something… or someone, as it is in this case.”

“It’s your wedding, Tony. It’s not about me. I wanted you to have this for you and Pepper without me being perpetually there.”

“It’s beautiful Bri. Everything we wanted, and it’s been perfect. But don’t you ever think that you aren’t welcome, that you aren’t a part of this all. I’m going to say this and then we’re going to move on like it never happened, but I really don’t know what I would do without you. You keep my head on my shoulders and your foot in my ass, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Neither would Pepper. You’re always going to be one of the best people in my life. And I want you to be happy. As happy as you make me. As happy as Pepper makes me.”

“Tony-”

“Ah-ah. Move on!”

“I should have charged you more to plan this whole thing, if only to hurt you somehow, asshole,” Bri sighed, heeding his wish to move on, though she did stop dancing to pull him into a tight hug that he returned with the same intensity. 

“Don’t let it go to your head. And don’t get any ideas. I’m not letting any celebrities or politicians steal you away from me for your planning prowess,” he whispered, softly, but she heard the real message underneath his words and squeezed him just a little bit tighter. 

“You’ll have to up my salary then. And I want a house in the Hamptons, with state of the art appliances, as many pairs of Louboutins as I can possibly fit in my walk-in shoe closet, and a new Bugatti,” she snickered, which turned into a real laugh as he spun her out away from him. 

“Is some of that consolation for your desperate, broken heart at seeing the love of your life marry someone else?”

“Oh baby no, I haven’t even started on what I want for that,” Bri said with a wicked grin as he spun her back in, and Tony laughed, though it sounded suspiciously like he might have been covering a groan at the thought of how much of his money she was dreaming of spending. He would let her too, if she asked it of him. But looking into those eyes of hers as the song changed and they picked up the new rhythm, he knew that this, their camaraderie, their friendship, their connection, this was all she would really ever want from him. Lucky, then, that he was all too willing to give it, in the selfish desire that she would stick around and give it back in return. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Standard stuff:  
> I cannot lay claim to anything Marvel makes; Bri is the only toy I own in this sandbox I'm playing in.  
> Please be courteous and don't post or share this anywhere else.


	5. The One with the Wedding Gifts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter I have finished, though the final four are very much underway. I will post as I finish them, and aim to be finished with this whole thing by June 10!
> 
> As always, I welcome kind and helpful critiques, and if you want to drop a comment or a kudos, I certainly will not say no!

Bri made her grand escape after a few songs, when the frosting on her chest began to dry and flake off. 

As soon as she stepped away, Pepper speared Tony with a meaningful glance, and he grinned at her as he crossed over to take the napkin she held out. 

“I love you,” he said softly as he wiped as much of the frosting from his face and shirt as he could. 

“You better. Now, about our dance.” She swept him onto the floor, and he dropped the napkin behind him, forgetting about everything besides his wife- fuck, he couldn’t quite believe he finally got to call her that- and the feeling of her swaying gracefully in his arms. 

He may have even been crying again. Just a little bit. But they were manly tears, dammit. 

The music eventually switched from slow romantic ballads to something that made Tony feel vaguely like an old man. It made sense, he thought, as he saw Bri come sprinting out of wherever she had been hiding with Clint Barton in tow, turning her back to him and his hands coming to her waist before they were even on the dancefloor. They landed next to Natasha, who it seemed was basically pole dancing on Bucky (fitting, with that metal arm, Tony thought).

Thought processes were lost to him, though, as he became aware of Pepper turning in his arms, pressing her ass firmly back around him as she began to rotate her hips slightly. 

“I’m too old for this, Pep,” Tony managed to grunt out, though he did notice that he was moving with her. 

“Shame. I’m not. Maybe I’ll go dance with Bri or Nat.”

“And you think I’d stop you?” 

“Maybe Thor, actually now that I think about it,” Pepper said wryly, turning to shoot Tony a smug little glance over her shoulder. He shrugged and rolled his eyes at her. 

“If he’s your free pass,” he deferred, because… well because Pepper and Thor would be fucking hot, and he would really be fine with it, especially so if he was allowed to watch. Or Pepper told him about it after. Or showed him pictures, or-

Somehow Pepper had managed to work them over to join the group that, with the exception of Barton, Tony actually felt too average to be a part of. Bucky was unrealistically hot, in that ageless, murderous sort of way, and Natasha was… well, Natasha. There were few who could stand beside her and be anywhere near the same league. Bri blew the same league out of the water. But Pepper, God she was in a league of her own, wasn’t she? She was radiant and happy, and Tony couldn’t stop looking at her like she hung the stars in the sky just for him. If she asked him to rope in the moon at that moment, he wouldn’t hesitate a second before blasting off. 

Bri smirked over at Tony and he rolled his eyes, and they all settled into this new circle. Happy and May joined, as did a few other people, and pretty soon it was basically the Avengers and their dates in what Tony was mentally calling a Circle Jerk, and everyone was enjoying themselves. Bri, Bucky, and Nat were trading what sounded like barbs in Russian and laughing, their eyes shooting over to Steve where he and Thor, who had both come stag, were bopping along to the music like two of the most blond, jacked frat boys in history, if you just subbed out the typical cans of Bud Light for the ridiculously expensive champagne that Tony had provided. Pepper, May, Happy, Wanda, Vision, Nakia, and T’Challa were all chatting about the wedding, and absolutely gushing about the rapidly approaching honeymoon in Wakanda, with Pepper and Nakia seeming to already be making plans. Not that Tony minded. If Pepper wanted to go run some spy mission while he got to see what was going on in Shuri’s lab, he’d be a happy man. Bruce, Scott, Helen, Hope, and Barton were involved in some discussion that bounced back and forth between wedding cake, astrophysics, and what seemed like a question of whether an arrow could hit an insect midair, and the plain old regular physics that went along with that inquiry. 

Outside of the main little circle, guests everywhere seemed to be cutting loose and having fun as well. Tony even caught a glimpse of Fury in a circle with Hill, Coulson, Carol, Rhodey, Sam and Maria Rambeau, arguing, it seemed like, but swaying along to the music anyways, if only slightly. 

So content was Tony that he dropped his guard, and almost jumped a mile in the air when someone came up behind him and tapped his shoulder. Ignoring the inquisitive (and rather amused) looks he was getting from those who noticed, he pulled back a minute from Pepper to turn and face whoever so rudely asked for his attention. He certainly wasn’t expecting to come face to chest with Steve Rogers. 

“A word? Just a minute Tony,” he said, his voice lowered so Tony could only just hear it over the music. 

He nodded mutely in response and tapped Pepper’s waist. She turned with a gracious smile, which genuinely widened when she saw Rogers. She had always had somewhat of a soft spot for him, which grated on Tony’s nerves endlessly. 

“Hi Steve!” she chirped happily, throwing her arms around him in a loose but friendly hug. “Glad to see you out here tearing it up!” The bridge of Steve’s nose turned pink, in what Tony considered an absolutely unfairly cute fashion. 

“You look radiant, Ms. Po- I suppose I should say Mrs. Stark. Congratulations. But I was hoping to borrow Tony a moment. I’ll return him in one piece, I promise,” Rogers said, nothing but that boy scout earnesty on his face as he held her at an infuriatingly appropriate arm’s length and regarded her with an artist’s appreciation. 

“Of course honey! He’s all yours. Keep him longer if you want, I need to make some rounds before we leave later!” And she turned her back on them, though Tony knew he caught the devious edge to her smile as she very clearly ignored his look that pleaded for her to say no. 

“What’s up Cap?” he forced himself to say, like the very presence of Steve Rogers in front of him didn’t make him feel like his spine had suddenly become a steel ramrod without his permission. He did manage to refrain from saluting, though, so that was already an improvement. 

“Uh, I was hoping we could step away for this,” Rogers hedged, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand. The other was firmly mashed into the pocket of his slacks. He looked uncharacteristically nervous, and Tony was instantly curious. He also wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to knock Rogers on his heels for once. 

“As long as you don’t profess your sudden undying love for me, sure. I’ve already had two women do that today, and I think that’s one too many for my wedding.”

“I assure you that will never happen, Tony.”

“Phew! Bless my lucky star-spangled banner then.”

Steve didn’t laugh, nor did he make any snappy response, which was a little odd. Instead, he drifted off towards the section of the park that wasn’t touched by the wedding decorations or festivities, not saying a word to prompt Tony to follow but instead leaving the expectation that he would lingering in the air behind him as he started off. 

Tony felt like a chastised dog somehow, yet followed nonetheless. 

They walked in silence for what seemed like ages, though really it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, as Tony could still hear the sounds of the music drifting over to them. When they reached the Cherry Hill Fountain they stopped, Rogers apparently deeming that this was private enough for whatever conversation they needed to have so urgently that it couldn’t wait until after the wedding. 

He didn’t speak immediately though, looking out pensively at the water splashing down, before taking a seat on the edge, one hand still deeply ensconced in his pocket, though it appeared that he was fiddling with something. 

“That’s not a ring, is it Cap? Cuz I just got one that I’m not keen on-”

“Sit down, Tony.”

Tony sat. 

“Listen, there’s kinda two parts to this, alright?” Steve huffed, blue eyes meeting Tony’s only a second before he looked down at his shoes, back to the water, and then he breathed out a sigh and turned again to Tony. “I know we aren’t the best of friends, or even the closest of teammates. I know I get on your nerves, and trust me, you get on mine something fierce. But I also know that you’re a good man, Stark because I can see you trying to be one. You put up with all of our business, you house and feed us all, you pay for all the damages like it’s no sweat off your back-”

“Because it’s not.”

Steve rolled his eyes at the interruption but continued on. “You treat Pepper well, and I know I don’t need to tell you to keep it up or anything because I have no doubt she can put you in your place should she need to. People love you, and while I’m not one of the members of your devoted fan club, I see some of the appeal, I suppose. If I squint.”

“Aw Cap, you really are trying to confess your love for me,” Tony snarked, if only to save face, because dammit Rogers had knocked him on his heels…again. 

“I promise you, I ain’t.” A little bit of that Brooklyn accent popped through as Steve leaned back a little like he was scared Tony would try to plant one on him. “All I’m getting at is that maybe we could just try to get along a little better? I can stop being-”

“A stick-in-the-mud, no-fun, law-abiding, goody-two-shoes authoritarian?”

“I was gonna say stubborn and overbearing. And no promises. I can only try my best. If you can try to not be such a-”

“A know-it-all, brilliantly superior, pain-in-your-ass, rebellious, devastatingly handsome wild child?” 

“A condescending know-it-all. And stop interrupting,” Steve snapped, and damn, Tony actually kind of missed riling up that temper. It was a perverse hobby, sure, but sue him. “Ok? I’m prepared to offer a sort of truce. We certainly don’t need to be best friends, nor will I ever, ever, be in love with you. But maybe we can tolerate each other. I think the team could benefit from it. And well, leading into the second part of this whole thing, I’m sorta hoping you might be seeing more of me around. I’m thinking of court…I’m thinking of asking Bri on a date.”

Tony blinked at him, and Steve only lasted a few seconds before he started fidgeting with whatever was in his pocket again. “I can do tolerable,” Tony said dumbly, but he held up his hand quickly when Steve took a breath, indicating that he wasn’t quite done talking. “Are you...are you asking for my blessing to ask Bri out? Because man she wouldn’t appreciate it if you think she needs my permi-”

“ _I_ need your permission, Tony, because I’d rather not be dating someone if her best friend is going to be in her ear all the while talking about how much he hates me, and she should too!” And there it was. Steve blinked once and then dropped his head into his hands, mumbling something to himself. Clearly, that hadn’t been part of his plan for this talk. 

“Hey, ok Rogers. Blessing given. And, uh, just for the record? I don’t _hate_ you. We’re certainly not the greatest pals, but even I’ve got to admit you’re one hell of a leader, even if I don’t agree with your decisions at times. And you’re basically the stock model for a wholesome, All-American good boy, so I certainly don’t think you’ll treat her poorly or anything like that, and I know you’re actually a good guy through to the bone, which is a little unnerving, really.”

“Thanks Stark,” Steve muttered into his palms, but it sounded somewhat sincere, just under the sarcasm. 

“No problemo. But, just… I would feel it out if I were you. Last I knew she was kinda involved with someone, and I don’t know if it’s a boyfriend or girlfriend deal, or a friends with benefits kind of situation, but she seemed pretty hooked on whoever it was, real protective like. I like you enough to not unfairly get your hopes up. I’m a jackass, sure, but I’m not a piece of shit,” he chuckled awkwardly, starting to get up. He, strangely, felt a little lighter after that conversation. It would be nice, he supposed, to not have to exhaust himself and the team by duking it out with Rogers every time. Only when he was being really stupid. He could do that. And he could work on keeping his mouth shut when perhaps his opinion wasn’t explicitly necessary. But that was by no means going to come quick or easy.

“One more thing before you go,” Rogers said, just as Tony started to turn to head back towards the reception. 

“I thought you said only two parts to this conversation?”

“I did. We don’t have to talk about this. I just wanted to give you my wedding present. I didn’t want it to get lost among everything else.” And from his pocket he pulled a small black oval. It was less than half the size of his palm, and when he flipped it over Tony saw it had six buttons, one was a large circle surrounded by a ring formed by four others, and the sixth was a smaller circle just above with a small bulb in the middle. 

“Should I push one or something?” Tony asked as he took it carefully, not that he thought Captain America would give him a bomb or something of the like, but Tony was, as a general rule of thumb, wary of remotes when he couldn’t see what they operated.

Steve didn’t answer, and when Tony looked up he was already fading into the darkness, halfway back to the reception himself. 

Tony followed, turning the remote over in his hands. The four buttons that made up the ring had markings; the two on the sides had a minus sign and a plus sign, while the two on the top and bottom had what looked like WiFi signals, one with one bar and the other with three. The big circle in the middle had no markings. He tried pressing all of the buttons, but the only one that got a response was the one with the bulb. If he pressed it once the bulb turned green, which he assumed meant on, and if he held it down after he turned it on, the bulb flashed red and then turned off, which he felt safe to assume meant the remote itself was off. But what about what it was attached to? He felt like he was missing something as he walked back, like something was wriggling in the back of his mind but he couldn’t quite see what it was. 

He hadn’t worked it out by the time he got back to the fray, running his thumb over it once before going to slip it into his pocket and rejoin his party. He spotted several things at once when he lifted his eyes. It seemed that Barton and Lang had decided to test the arrow vs. ant theory, and there was a crowd of just as dumb and drunk revelers cheering them on where they stood off in the grass to the side of the whole setup. Steve was, apparently, a very fast worker, for he and Bri were swaying to the song that was playing, something light and romantic, with their heads bent together, whispering something Tony had no chance in Hell of making out. And finally, and most importantly, Pepper was running at him, pushing him back into a shadow just off of the dancefloor. 

“What? What happened?” he asked frantically, catching her shoulders in his hands and stopping her momentum. 

“Bri gave me her wedding gift!” Pepper hissed, shaking a closed fist at him. 

“And?” 

“And I don’t have any pockets or anywhere to put it, so you need to do something with it because I will not be caught holding this,” she shoved whatever it was into Tony’s empty hand, “at my wedding!”

Tony, trying not to chuckle, looked down at the ball of fabric in his hand. It was a deep navy blue, reminiscent of the dress she had worn the first time they had danced together at the charity event back when this whole thing started. He shook it out and froze, vaguely hearing Pepper’s displeased grumble but completely ignoring it. That something (or, more appropriate, somethings) that had been dancing at the back of his mind came racing forward violently. 

Sam had known who it was.

Fury had known who it was, and Bri hadn’t named him when she was listing the people she had tipped off about his investigation mission. 

Vision had mentioned a remote, and Natasha had given Bri-

“Vibrating panties,” Tony breathed, sounding almost like he was in awe. 

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the gift, I’m sure we can put them to use, but really she couldn’t have wai-”

“Vibrating panties, Pep! She gave you vibrating panties and Steven fucking Rogers gave me the remote!” Tony watched Pepper’s eyes widen, her mouth opening in a soft ‘O’. She made some strange sort of sound, staring at him a moment before they both snapped their attention to the dance floor when a raucous cheer went up. 

Bri’s hands were tangled deeply in Steve’s hair, his hands possessively wrapped around her waist, and they were locked in a kiss so passionate it seemed like they were the ones getting married.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same old:  
> Bri's mine, nothing else is; I'm not profiting off of Marvel's creations.  
> Don't post this anywhere else, pretty please.


	6. The One with the Last Dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> June 10 is here... and the story is not yet finished. This chapter took me a little longer than I would have liked, but the remaining three (maybe four) are all underway, so they should be up in a relatively prompt manner!
> 
> I hope you enjoy this one, I think I finally reached a place where I'm happy with it.

“No, I promise I really was going to tell you, Tony!” Bri laughed, for what felt like the millionth time tonight. This interrogation had been ongoing for at least twenty minutes, and Tony was still a little awestruck. 

“Then why didn’t you?”

“I asked her not to,” Steve finally spoke from the chair next to Bri, leaning back in it like he didn’t have a care in the world. However, his leg was bouncing so fast that Tony was kind of surprised he hadn’t started jackhammering away the dirt yet. 

“And I thought we could have a little fun with it, and kind of ease ‘us’ into being something that was really ready to be out in public. You’re not known for your subtlety, boss man.”

“I wouldn’t just out you guys if I needed the press off of my back! I can’t deflect some question about Stark Tech being found in weapons in Nicaragua by saying ‘No idea, but hey, have you guys heard Captain America’s fucking my executive manager?’ Wait, you guys have fucked right, this isn’t just some sort of long-haul fore- ow! Pep!” 

Pepper glared at him and he shrunk away from her gaze only to meet Bri giving him her patented ‘Tony-is-a-colossal-dumbass’ look while Steve, it looked like, attempted to stab him with nothing but the sheer force of will. 

“Ok! Ok! I’m just… these are the questions you guys will get, if you come out about the whole thing, you know that right? Are you prepared for that?” 

“That’s why we’re not talking about the whole thing,” Steve said through what sounded like only lightly clenched teeth (improvements already!). 

“We started talking a few months ago when he got back from that splinter cell bust in Turkey. I gave him my number, because he asked for it like such a gentleman when he came out of debrief that morning, and I was so enchanted by his kindness and charm that we got dinner that night. We’ve been taking things appropriately slow ever since, and we really want to keep things private and between us,” Bri recited like she was reading it off of a cue card behind Tony’s head. She batted her eyelashes and smiled wide and sweet, and Tony knew in an instant that the reporters would eat the whole thing up. 

“Cute,” Pepper said with a snort, perfectly vocalizing Tony’s thoughts. “But what’s the real story?”

“It started .. what, back after the neo-Nazis in Sweden?”

“Switzerland,” Steve corrected, using the hand that had been resting around Bri’s waist since they sat down to pull her a little closer into his side. 

“That was like… that was like nine months ago! In December!” Tony squawked, staring at them both incredulously. Steve shrugged and Bri nodded. 

“Yeah, we kept it real quiet for a bit. Fury didn’t even find out till three months in, and we even kept Natasha and Bucky out of it till four had gone by. You’ve only been at this for two, Tony. But anyway, he came back in after Christmas, you and Pep were gone with her parents that week I think, so we had a little get together for him and Buck so they could at least do something for the holidays. Natasha, apparently, ‘missed’ a present for me, and decided to give me the special gift in a more intimate setting. You should jump in here, I don’t wanna misrepresent this part,” Bri said, turning to Steve at the end with a wry little grin. 

He rolled his eyes at her, but a small smirk was pulling at one side of his lips, despite the fact that his cheeks were slowly but surely turning red. 

“I was interested the moment I saw them in her hands. I don’t know what half this new stuff is, and though I was not a virgin when I went into the ice, as they so love to speculate, my experience was severely limited. I asked for her number that night, and a couple days later I asked if she might be willing to lend a hand-”

“Among other things,” Bri butted in with a wolfish grin.

“To a research project,” Steve finished, looking down at Bri fondly and pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head. Beside Tony, Pepper melted a bit. 

“Wait, you guys were fuck buddies?” Tony hissed, having to actually work to keep from screeching that question for the whole world to hear. 

“Only briefly.” Bri shrugged the question off like it was nothing. “I think we quickly realized we actually liked each other and wanted to be together, and we had to get a little creative about it, but it worked out pretty well, in my opinion.” She leaned into Steve’s side with a genuine grin, and Tony knew right then that she wasn’t pulling his leg even in the slightest. 

“Was I the last one who knew?” Tony asked, deflating a little bit. 

Bri reached out and placed a hand on his knee. “Not the last. Scott had no idea. Peter didn’t either, I’m pretty sure that Happy didn’t, and we never told Bruce or Rhodey, so you are part of the larger group that all found out well… just now,” she chuckled a little apologetically. 

“I think he’s just upset that he didn’t figure it out on his own,” Pepper chuckled wryly when Tony only continued to pout. Bri shrugged but winked at her, a victorious little gesture that oozed self-satisfaction. 

“We’ll go out, all of us, when you two get back,” Steve interrupted suddenly, running a hand over his face as he turned back to the conversation from whatever had caught his attention over in the vicinity of the dancefloor and the small gathering of their friends and teammates who were trying, and failing, to pretend that they were dancing and _certainly not_ watching the conversation intently. 

Tony and Bri both perked up like little kids, nodding enthusiastically, practically bouncing in their seats. Pepper, far more collected than her excitable husband and dear friend, smiled easily. 

“That sounds like a wonderful idea honey,” she said, turning that serenely beautiful smile at Steve, receiving an almost shy grin in return, before turning back to Tony. “So that means you can continue grilling them later, because we’re scheduled to leave here at nine and I’m not spending the last hour of my wedding talking about Bri’s relationship and sex life, sorry.”

“None taken!” Bri piped up with a megawatt grin and her bell-like giggle. The champagne, it seemed, had started to reach her head. 

“Thank God,” Steve all but growled, and before anyone could even say a word, he grabbed Bri’s hand and swept her off onto the dancefloor. He strode to an empty area with purpose, not speaking a word to anyone aside from punching Bucky in the arm as he passed, and not softly, from the looks of it. 

“I feel like I just got left behind,” Tony said softly, rubbing absently at the center of his chest. The arc reactor had long been gone, but sometimes it ached like it had just been yanked out and left him bloody and raw. The feeling now wasn’t stemming from the scar but from somewhere within him as he watched Steve gather Bri into his arms. As he watched her melt like she belonged there and nowhere else. It was just easier to pretend that old wounds were acting up, rather than admitting new ones were opening. 

“You know she loves you, Tony.”

“I know. And I’m happy for her. I’m just a selfish man, Pep.”

“Well, I’m not going anywhere. Ever,” Pepper whispered, pressing her lips to his cheek softly. 

“How unfortunate for you,” Tony answered, just as quietly, turning to catch her lips with his own before she could truly pull away. “I love you so much Pepper. I never thought I’d get to have this… that I’d get to have you.” It was his confession, the words that had been layered under his vows but he hadn’t been able to make himself say in front of hundreds of people. They were for her, and her alone. 

“I love you too. I’ll show you how much later.” She nipped at his lip to punctuate that sentence, and then she jumped up onto her feet in front of him. 

“Don’t tease me like that,” Tony half-laughed, half-groaned. Pepper only smirked and pulled him to his feet, escorting him to the dancefloor.

The last hour of their wedding flew by, and Tony hardly saw his wife. It seemed that everyone had realized the happy couple was soon to be departing and wanted to get a dance, a conversation, a farewell before they made their way to the airport. But soon enough they were being crowded into their car, cheerful congratulations and suggestive leers bombarding them until Tony slammed the door shut and collapsed into the backseat, half in Pepper’s lap.

The crowd receded as the car slowly started to make its way out of Central Park, guests returning to the dancefloor, the Ramble, the gardens, and/or the champagne to wrap up their night in style. Tony gazed out the open window, watching as couples and groups of friends alike started to dissipate into the night, passing from the bright, still rather crowded main area of festivities into the peaceful, quiet serenity of the park. 

“We did good,” he said into Pepper’s shoulder, placing a kiss there because he just couldn’t stop himself. 

“We really did.” Pepper started to turn towards him, but something caught her attention and she stopped dead in her tracks. “Oh my goodness,” she whispered softly, placing a hand on Tony’s knee. 

He craned his neck to see around her and froze himself. 

Just there, in the Shakespeare Garden, only _just_ visible from the road, were two figures, swaying together in a formal but intimate frame more suited to… well to the 40s. And through the window floated the faint strains of a big band jazz song that Tony knew but couldn’t quite place until Pepper reclined back against his chest and whispered “It’s been a long, long time.” 

Feeling like he was intruding on something that was Bri and Steve’s alone, and also desperately overwhelmed with love for the woman resting against him, Tony did the only thing he could at the moment. He tipped Pepper’s chin back, and pressed his lips to hers, gentle but hungrily passionate in the way he had wanted to all night. The way he wanted to take her apart when they were alone later. The way he wanted to love her, kiss her, cherish her, for the rest of their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Typical stuff:  
> I only own Bri and make no profit off of any of Marvel's properties.  
> Please do not repost this anywhere else!


	7. The One with the Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is way longer than I intended it to be, but I couldn't stop. 
> 
> We really earn the E-rating with this one, so I hope you all enjoy it! It's rougher than I was intending them to be, but for those who like softer stuff, Tony and Pepper's honeymoon will follow this, and they are decidedly sweeter.  
> (There is some blood (from biting/rough play) involved here with Bri and Steve, not very heavy, but still there. Just to let those of you who may not like that know.)

They weren’t supposed to end up at Bri’s apartment. No, they were supposed to finally, _finally_ , spend a night in Steve’s suite, as this was the first time they could do so without Tony barging in or FRIDAY ratting them out. 

Steve had planned his entire evening around what had, at the time, seemed to be the inevitability of returning to his place after the wedding. He had cleaned (obsessively, as Bucky had called it,) his apartment from floor to ceiling. He had gone shopping and set up everything to fall perfectly in line with his vision of a romantically seductive night. In his mind’s eye he could see the roses he’d laid out in his kitchen, the red wine in his living room that he’d arranged for Bucky to set out when he got back, the tea lights flickering on his bedroom furniture and forming a pathway to his bed with its brand new, ridiculously expensive sheets he’d put on and garnished with a handful of rose petals. 

However, his mind’s eye was not the one whose vision he was devoting his focus to, because Bri was standing in front of him, very much in his real line of sight, with eyes flashing like live wires, volatile and dangerous. 

His hand remained steadfastly closed around her wrist, trying to stop her from fleeing, as she was so clearly aiming to do. He couldn’t stop her for long though, as she freed herself with a sudden and sharp yank, taking advantage of the fact that he was still vaguely horrified. 

Bri sprinted off down the hallway, fumbling with her keys as she reached her door. The curse she spat under her breath resonated down to Steve’s toes, and he was moving before his brain even registered it. He approached her quickly but cautiously, trying to balance his response to cater to her urge to flee at one wrong move with his own need to stop that from happening.

He wasn’t fast enough, for she unlocked her door and slipped inside before he could catch her, and her door was swinging directly at his face with a force he was honestly surprised she was capable of. Luckily, though, she wasn’t as fast as she wanted to be either, and he was able to wedge his hand into the path of the door to prevent it from closing and shutting him out. 

“Bri,” he said, not trying to push his way in (though he could,) instead just holding the door a mere inch or so ajar and hoping she would relent instead. 

“What? What could you possibly have to tell me that you haven’t already made abundantly clear, Steven?” She didn’t budge to open the door and let him in, though it didn’t feel like she was trying to sever his fingers just to slam it shut anymore. They were both just kind of holding the door, her using it as a barrier, he anchored to it like his last remaining lifeline to her.

“Can you let me in? Please?”

A moment of excruciating silence and stillness passed, and then the door was wrenched open as quickly and as violently as it had swung to close. She stood in the threshold of her apartment, positively vibrating with what he felt comfortable labeling as rage. 

“Why should I? I think you’ve said everything you needed to.”

“So that’s it then?” He tried to control the volume of his voice, well aware that he was still currently stood in the middle of a public hallway, but his emotions were getting the best of him.

“You tell me! You’re the one who just tried to dump me not thirty minutes after you told me you love me! Is this it, Steve?” Bri hissed, though she too suddenly seemed to realize just where they were. With a displeased twist of her lips, she grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him into the apartment, finally getting to slam the door. As soon as they were well and truly alone she let go of him, planting her hands on her hips as she stared at him, clearly set to wait stubbornly until he could formulate a suitable answer. 

“Bri, I hurt-”

“Oh, I swear to God if this is really about the fact that you made me bleed-”

“It’s about how much I liked it!”

Bri stopped dead, staring at him for a long moment. He couldn’t tell what that emotion was in her eyes, but it made his skin crawl. He deserved it if she threw him out.

“I’ve made you bleed, Steve. I’ve hurt you, and I liked it,” she said, her tone drastically different than mere moments ago. She was soft now, taking slow steps towards him like he was a frightened animal about to run. 

“I heal,” he grit out, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling as she approached. For, as disgusted as he was with himself, as angry as he was for losing control as he had, watching her come at him like that, all quiet and docile and caring, it made him want to sink his teeth into her hard and rip her to pieces. 

“So do I.”

“Not-”

“No, not nearly as fast as you. But I heal. Look.” When he failed to do so, she reached up and grabbed his chin, her nails digging into his flesh sharply. “I said look,” she growled, soft edges gone. His stomach clenched. 

She used her leverage on his face to wrench his gaze to her chest, where she had shifted the already-dangerous neckline of her dress lower, revealing the old scar he knew stretched from the bottom of her sternum down past the edge of her dress to her bellybutton. 

“I heal. Say it,” she said, and it was not a request. He was helpless to deny her under normal circumstances. Like this, he was powerless. 

“You heal.”

“Again.”

“You heal.”

“ **Again.** ”

“You heal.”

“ _ **Again!**_ ”

“I get it Bri, you fucking heal! Are you asking me to do something you’ll need to heal from?”

“Yes.” 

This time it was Steve’s turn to freeze, his eyes flicking up to catch hers. She stared back with nothing but mulish stubbornness. 

“You’ll be the death of me,” he whispered, dropping his forehead to hers.

“Un-break up with me then, so I can stick around to at least make it worthwhile,” she said back, her genuine hurt and insecurity layered under the challenge she so gamely offered. 

He knew they should talk about this. He knew that this moment was undoubtedly one of the ones that fell firmly in the ‘unhealthy’ category. But dammit, he didn’t have the words at the moment, so he kissed her instead, taking her face in his own punishing grip and sealing his mouth to hers like a man starved. 

Bri felt like she was coming home when his lips touched hers. She had really thought that this might have been the end, but to have him so fervently attacking her mouth calmed her some. She knew they would need to talk about this later, but right now talking was the last thing on her mind. It was pushed completely out of her thoughts when his teeth sank into her lip so hard she tasted the metallic tang of her blood. 

She attacked him then with a moan that was like a warcry, using his blind hunger against him to turn them and pin him back against the island in the kitchen. He didn’t fight her, he rarely did, but he certainly was not playing passively either, one hand slipping from her cheek to the halter straps of her dress, tearing them away with nothing more than a flexing of his fingers. His possessive hand burned against her bare back as it trekked downwards to reach the fabric of the skirt of her dress that rested just above the curve of her ass. With the same efficiency, he shoved the rest of her dress over her hips, letting it pool on the floor as his hand returned to her, cupping the back of her neck and dragging her in until they could be no closer, her bare breasts pressed to the front of his tux. 

“I like you like this,” he said softly into her mouth, using his grip at the nape of her neck to pull her just far enough away that while her lips ever so gently brushed against his, she could not surge forward to truly kiss him. 

However, with one hand on her jaw and the other on her neck, he didn’t have control over her hands, and she decided to answer that statement by wrenching open his jacket and his vest with one rather violent tear. She worked his shirt next, gloriously impatient fingers struggling with the buttons. Under her breath she was making frustrated little growling noises, which only grew louder when Steve heard and curled his lips into a devious smirk. 

“Beautiful. You’re so beautiful when you’re this hungry for me.” He knew he was egging her on. He knew he was playing with fire. But God, he never wanted to burn more than he did with her feverish skin against his, with her fiery eyes blazing with red hot passion. 

When Bri’s hands made purchase on his bare chest he dropped his hold on her, instead leaning back and holding on to the edge of the counter, regarding her with a determination that made a shiver run up her spine. 

“If you’re so hungry,” he began, his voice about two octaves deeper than it had been, “put your mouth to good use.”

Bri was not stupid. Nor was she blind. She wasn’t going to defy him, certainly not when she wanted it so badly. She was unashamed to admit that his body was amazing, cock included, and the idea of getting her lips around it had her nearly drooling for it as she sank to her knees before him.

His belt and pants were undone within the span of a heartbeat, though she took a moment with his briefs, tracing the jut of his cock through the charcoal gray fabric with the lightest drag of her lips. 

“Bri,” he warned, rather glad at the moment that she had ceded the power to him. When she was holding the reins (figuratively) and his balls (literally,) he was often in for a long, amazingly miserable bout of teasing and drawn-out pleasure so sharp it bordered on pain. When he controlled her (as much as she let him,) at least he could somewhat shorten the torture. Bri never played nice though, that was the constant no matter the position, the power dynamic, anything. 

Now was not an exception. 

“Steve,” she echoed, her mocking clear even in light of the fact that she had hooked her pinkies into his waistband and was dragging them down slowly, inch by excruciating inch. His cock finally bobbed free, arching towards her in a clear invitation/plea/demand/he didn’t know what, honestly, at this point. 

This was one of Bri’s favorite parts when she got to fuck him. To have him before her, his desire, his need, for her abundantly clear, made flesh in the proud jut of his gut-clenchingly gorgeous cock. She always took a moment to just look at him, to gaze up the length of him and catch the absolutely _wrecked_ light in his eyes as he watched her, so close to where he wanted her to be. 

He was especially handsome tonight, with his tux hanging open on either side of his unfairly ripped chest, his hair still holding the smooth coif he had wrangled it into for the wedding. Those blue eyes were bottomless, blown wide for her, just for her, tracking her like a predator might watch its prey as she leaned forward and guided him into her mouth. 

As soon as he saw her lips wrapped around him he spit a curse, not missing the way that her mouth, even while _full,_ gave a twitch at one corner in delight. He knew she liked it when she took him apart to the point where he could not control his mouth. 

She was merciful tonight, sinking down on him slowly but steadily, and taking him to the base, her nose pressed into his pelvis. 

“Beautiful,” he choked out, hand returning to her cheek. She changed her angle, losing some depth but gaining sensation in the form of his palm through her cheek, and immediately he knew he was done for. All he could do was hold on, one hand on the counter, the other on her face, as she hollowed her cheeks and drew back, her tongue tracing the sensitive vein on the underside of his cock that made him twitch into her mouth. She sank back to the base, still slow (she needed a minute to adjust, dammit! He was exceedingly well made, and one hundred percent … proportional,) but with devilish ministrations of her tongue that earned her a gruff exhale. 

With each stroke she gradually increased her speed until she was working him over in earnest, matching each slight movement of his hips. One of her hands had found its way between her thighs, teasing herself over the thin lace of her panties to the same rhythm she was fucking her own mouth over his cock. 

Steve didn’t realize until she whimpered softly, his eyes snapping open and down to her. He couldn’t see her hand, and was momentarily distracted watching her pull back over his spit-slicked and absolutely aching cock, but her shoulder was moving (he eventually noticed) and well he couldn’t have that. Not tonight. 

“Give me your hands,” he growled, voice raspy as he rode the razor edge of pleasure. 

Bri jumped like he had taken an electric prod to her flesh, both hands flying into his waiting palm. She never stopped the movement of her head, even as she watched with wide eyes as he firmly gripped her wrists and jerked them over her head sharply. She yelped (as much as she could with him nudging the back of her throat,) though whether out of surprise, pain, or some combination of both, neither one of them knew. 

He figured that whatever the cause, it was certainly not negative, as suddenly she was devouring him, flying over him in furious devotion, the sounds of her mouth obscene. 

In merely a few moments, it was his turn to shout as she dragged him over the edge with an avaricious swallow, her muscles contracting and causing him to spill down her throat. 

She kept him in her mouth as he shuddered through the last aftershocks of his pleasure, only pulling off when he dropped the hand from her cheek. She ran her tongue along his softening length, mostly because she just couldn’t control herself around a naked Captain America (she doubted anyone could, though she certainly would not give anyone else the chance.) 

It took Steve a moment to even remember where he was, the static in his brain slowly fading out, bits and pieces of reality filtering in individually. Bri’s mouth. The contented hum rumbling in her chest. Her hands still in his. Her hands were still in his. Oh, how advantageous. He tightened his grip on her, relishing the soft little gasp she let out. 

Their eyes met, his searching, hers just _hungry_ , until he seemed to find what he was looking for and gave a resolute little nod. It was more for himself, gathering his wits, or at least what remained of them, so he could at the very least look back at this and know every decision had been made in a sound state of mind. 

“I’m going to ask you a few questions Bri. You will answer either yes, no, or choose one an option from the choices I’ll give you unless otherwise prompted. Do you understand?” he asked, tone firmly indicating that this was serious, and she needed to treat it as such. 

“Yes,” she whispered, heeding his unspoken warning that this was not the time for her games. There was a promise in his eyes that she did not want to miss out on. 

“It doesn’t upset you that I liked seeing your blood? That I liked knowing I was the one to make you bleed?”

“No.”

“And you know that I would never consider actually hurting you outside of a sexual situation? You know I would never lay a hand on you in anger or anything like that… right?” He had really been trying to sound confident and in control, but that last word gave him away. He couldn’t bring himself to care though. Not when it was this important to him that she knew that while he might like to rough her up in bed, he would never do anything to intentionally cause her harm without her permission, and he would certainly never take out his frustrations on her in a physical manner. 

“Yes.” 

Her obedience to his orders made this all easier and the pit in his stomach lessened somewhat, now that the two really important questions had been cleared. It left room for a gnawing need to surge in. 

“If I said I wanted to do it ag-”

“Yes,” she cut him off before he could finish that question, her upturned face showing nothing but earnest honesty layered over her own desperation for him. 

“I want safewords then. Would you prefer the stoplight or the fruit salad?” They both snickered softly at his wording, and that only served to reassure him further. She was still here, she was laughing at him, she was okay with all of this. 

“Fruit salad,” she said with laughter lacing her tone, earning herself a bit of a smirk from him. Her heart and stomach both flipped. 

“Run through them for me. Just so I know you know what they mean.”

“Grape means slow down. Lime means pause for a second. Strawberry means we need to take a minute and talk something through. Apple means we stop completely, immediately, and forward proceedings will be decided by the Apple-applier, in this case: me. All other fruits are delusional ramblings of pleasure and mean continue forthwith, please and thank you.” She winked at him. He rolled his eyes but seemed appeased nonetheless. 

She felt better, now that he appeared to have relaxed. The rigidity in his shoulders was gradually softening, and his fondly exasperated acceptance of her tentative little foray away from straight-up somber into flirtation meant his brain was loosening up as well. It was not meant to take away from the importance of the moment, because she well and truly understood, and had he not suggested the safewords she would have, but instead to tell him that this really was ok, that she really was willing and happy to explore this with him. 

“Ok,” he whispered softly, mostly to himself. “Ok.” The repeat of the word was meant for her. It was his confirmation. His acceptance of the path they had laid out for tonight. She smiled at him. He smiled back, and finally it felt like they were both breathing fully again. 

“I’m not taking you to bed for this. Would you prefer the kitchen or the bathroom?”

“The kitchen. May I ask why?”

“I will forever and always think of our first time together in your bed. This has no place with that memory. I don’t want to ruin that sweetness.” As he spoke he pulled her up none-too-gently by her wrists until she was sort-of standing, her toes only just brushing the ground.

She tried not to let on how hot this was, him effortlessly holding her all but immobile and looking at her like he was going to lunge at her teeth first. The realization that he might ruined any hope of composure though, as she shuddered helplessly, goosebumps erupting across her flesh, her nipples hardening to diamond points. 

He didn’t miss that, of course he didn’t, his eyes dropping to finally take her in. She was gorgeous, always was. He could eat her alive. He was considering doing just that. 

“So this isn’t going to be sweet?” Bri asked suddenly, and he recognized it for what it was. She was trying to distract him, trying to get him to do something, anything, other than just stare at her. She always got antsy in her own skin when he did nothing more than look at her. Luckily for her, there was so much more than looking that he wanted to do. 

She lost her breath as Steve suddenly turned them, basically tossing her onto her back onto the island, though he made sure to do so in a way that wouldn’t result in her head smacking off of the granite countertop. He always made her feel like she was taken care of, even if she didn’t necessarily feel safe, not with the way he bracketed her with his arms and leaned over to leer down at her. 

“I have never, in as long as I have known you, wanted to be as decidedly un-sweet to you as I do right now.” And before she could respond he caught her mouth in a harsh kiss.

He didn’t waste a second, his possessive hands laying claim to her body in the same breath he used to steal hers with his kiss. It was different, to not feel like he was going to break her and send her running if he pressed too hard. But oh, it was liberating. 

He was rough with her in a way he never had been before, handfuls of flesh grabbed and kneaded and molded to fit his hands with force enough to bruise. Her lip he claimed with his teeth, the already broken skin rending again, staining their lips red. 

As he began to descend down her body, Bri had many, _many_ , words for him. She cursed when he bit down on her collarbone, re-marking the original bite that had started this whole night on the wrong foot. She hissed at him when he pinched one nipple in his teeth and rolled the other mercilessly between his fingers. She rambled as he buried his face between her legs, tormenting her with little kitten licks to her clit that made her hips buck against his face, her inner thighs quickly blooming red with a burn from his beard. She shrieked when he landed an open-handed slap to her pussy, and then begged him to do it again. She chanted his name like a prayer when he finally relented and ate her to orgasm twice in a row, then buried his fingers deep within her to earn himself a third. But for all the words she had, not one fruit found its way into her vocabulary. 

She certainly was not employing any when demanding (loudly) that he ‘fuck her already.’ And Steve wasn’t going to deny her that, not when his cock was aching so badly it was drooling against his stomach. 

In one swift movement he dragged her off the island and turned her around, using one hand to push her face down against the countertop while the other aligned his cock where it so desperately wanted to be, and then he was sheathed to the hilt in her pussy with one brutal thrust that forced the air from her lungs in a choked sob. 

She was scorching hot around him, and so fucking tight that he couldn’t help but exhale “fuck” under his breath, and then promptly set up a punishing rhythm like he was trying to fuck her through the counter and into the floor. At the moment he certainly felt like he could. 

The cool counter pressed against the front of her body and the side of her face did little to temper the fire that burned everywhere he touched her, concentrated especially between her hips as he filled her, over and over and over again, with no signs of slowing and no mercy to be found. She loved it. Loved being reduced to a drooling, crying mess, capable of nothing more than giving and receiving pleasure so monumental that, at times, it felt like it could stop her heart. 

He could feel her rocketing towards yet another orgasm, and he knew that she would drag him over with her when she came. So, not to waste the opportunity, he slammed in deep with a filthy grind of his pelvis against her. When she moaned, he blew his palm across her ass, hard. 

She jumped but was pushing back before she even truly settled, wordlessly asking for more. She didn’t think she could have asked even if he had let her. But he took to turning her cheeks cherry red with a single-minded determination, layering hit after hit with an artistry that had pain and pleasure rolling over each other and turning her into nothing more than a quivering mess of boneless Bri. 

“Next time,” he growled, fisting the hand that had held her head down in her hair and yanking her up so her back was pressed against his chest, “next time I’m going to tie you down, and I’m going to use my belt on this sweet ass of yours until you can’t fucking sit for a day. And the time after that, I’ll get a cane so you can’t sit for a week.”

With that Bri was done for, her eyes rolling back into her head as she shook apart, mouth parted in a silent scream. 

Steve’s other hand reached around to possessively grab hold of her breast, and he slammed into her once, twice, three times more before she bested him, the vice-like grip of her pussy unrelenting. He spilled within her with a roar that he muffled into a mouthful of her shoulder, feeling at the moment like he was on top of the world.

They both collapsed at the same time, their knees giving out and sending them sprawling on the kitchen floor. 

She gathered herself first, just enough to roll off of him, wincing slightly as he slipped out of her, but she was far too hot to stay there. She plastered herself to the tile next to him and closed her eyes, bare chest heaving. 

What felt like hours later, but was probably only a handful of minutes, Steve finally managed to open his eyes and sit up. He still felt a bit dizzy, but he could actually breathe again. His eyes sought her out immediately, needing to make sure she was still with him and still okay. 

He could verify that she was alive, going by the rapid pants slipping from her slightly parted lips. Okay was still to be seen, but he knew that, at the very least, she was bleeding. 

Five half-moon cuts were welling up with blood on her left breast, and the bite on her collarbone was the source of a crimson drop that rolled slowly towards her sternum.  
Without thinking he leaned over and lapped it up, knowing it was his fault and therefore feeling it was his responsibility to take care of. 

“Did you just lick blood off of me?” she asked.

“Uh....” he answered eloquently, his gaze that had so intently focused on her wounds now flicking sheepishly to her face. He was met with a wry grin and an amused light in her eyes. 

“It would be kinda hot if you did. Just saying.” 

He laughed and kissed her because she was there, he was here, and there was nothing that could keep him from her. 

“I did mean it when I said I love you,” he said, pulling back to look her in the eye, needing her to know that he was being one hundred percent sincere. 

“Did you mean the breaking up part after that?”

“Not in the slightest. I just scared myself.”

“Then I love you too. And don’t ever pull that shit again.”

“Yes ma’am.”

She answered that with a stolen kiss of her own. 

Together they eventually climbed to their feet and stumbled off towards the shower, capable of nothing more than rinsing off before falling into bed, butt naked and still wet, and promptly falling asleep together. 

When they both woke to a clap of thunder at an ungodly hour in the morning, she showed him she meant it, riding him slowly with her forehead resting against his, both trading lazy kisses until they came together. Someone whispered “I love you,” as they fell over the edge, but in the dark neither one of them really knew where they ended and the other began, so they weren’t sure who had muttered the words. It didn’t really matter either way, for they returned to sleep with Bri atop Steve, her heart resting directly over his, both beating in tandem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You made it! Again, I hope you enjoyed it. Any mistakes are all mine, and I welcome any constructive or positive feedback you may have!
> 
> (And ye old faithful: I don't profit off of Marvel properties; Bri is my only brainchild; pretty, pretty please don't post this anywhere else)


	8. The One with the Honeymoon Suite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say for myself except sorry. I hope that this can at least somewhat make up for the wait!

It was one hundred percent not part of the plan that Tony, ten days into their honeymoon, would get so sunburnt that even the mere thought of straying out of their room made his body ache. 

It wasn’t his fault, not really. If Pepper hadn’t lured him into that rocky cove, far away from prying eyes, and pulled aside her bikini bottom with devilish intent, he wouldn’t have ended up deliriously exhausted, and he wouldn’t have fallen asleep when they returned to their towels. And yes, he had been told to put sunscreen on, but she had jumped him immediately after, riding him within an inch of his life in the middle of the ridiculously large bed, her hands clasped around his throat, and he blamed the lack of oxygen to the head with his brain for forgetting. 

Really, all of this was Pepper’s fault… if he squinted and looked at it sideways. 

Not that she really cared. She utilized the opportunity his incapacitation provided her to the highest degree. 

When he was rotating between a freezing cold shower and laying on the tiles of the bathroom floor on Tuesday, she was off touring the palace with T’Challa. 

When he slept fitfully all through Wednesday and Thursday, she and Nakia made delivery rounds to women’s and children’s shelters. 

When he could only stiffly do laps around their suite on Friday, she and Shuri were out visiting the rhinos, and they ended up in the lab. Tony threw an epic fit when she returned and ended up sleeping on the couch (possibly as punishment for insinuating that she had done this to him on purpose.) 

So Saturday he woke up early, well before Pepper, took a cold shower, liberally covered himself in aloe and the medicated salve Shuri had whipped up for him (which Pepper had thrown at his chest before closing the bedroom doors in his face,) and got dressed in the loosest, coolest clothes he had. 

His first mission was breakfast, which he managed with a very quick trip into the nearby city market, buying a basketful of berries and retreating in surrender as the sun rose threateningly in the sky. With the things he found in their kitchen he managed what he believed to be a passable batch of pancakes, which he had attempted to make heart-shaped but came out as blobs that could be clouds or Rorschach images. 

Pepper padded out of the bedroom just as he laid out the food on the table, rubbing at her eyes groggily with balled fists. Tony found it unbearably cute. 

His next mission of the day was to apologize.

He at least managed to wait until she had sat down across from him and dragged two pancakes onto her plate before he just had to say something.

“I’m sorry for being an asshole last night. I know that you weren’t trying to sabotage me, and that stuff you got for me from Shuri really kicks ass,” he blurted, holding his breath as her eyes left her plate to travel up to his face. 

She regarded him for a long moment, blinking slowly before she nodded and grinned at him. “Apology accepted. These pancakes look really good.” 

And like that Tony immediately felt better. 

Tony cajoled Pepper into regaling him with tales of the lab while they ate, and though she put up an excellent front of being fondly exasperated, it didn’t escape his notice that she mentioned things he knew he had told her he was specifically interested in. It warmed his heart to think of her asking Shuri about just how the train tracks stabilized the cars, or how they coded everything to the small bracelets she and T’Challa wore. 

While they were doing dishes they brainstormed ideas for the day, as the thought of spending any prolonged time in the sun made Tony’s skin sting, but the idea of spending the whole day inside made Pepper feel antsy and restless. 

They settled on venturing out into the city, Tony carefully remaining as close to the buildings as he possibly could, cramming himself into any shadows he could find, and simply allowing themselves to marvel at this amazing feat of engineering and architecture that millions didn’t even know existed. 

The morning they passed by strolling along the riverside walk, which was thankfully covered by a roof that looked to be made from lightweight solar panels. Pepper very nearly had to drag Tony away from a support beam it looked like he was attempting to climb so he could get a closer look at the build of them. 

They found a vendor selling rice and vegetable bowls for lunch, and parked themselves on a bench to watch a storm slowly roll closer over the horizon. Tony discovered he rather liked yams, and Pepper reestablished that she absolutely did not. 

The afternoon, while they had meant for it to be a leisurely walk back to their suite, ended up as a futile race back, the winds and rain moving in far faster than they had anticipated. They gave up about halfway back, when they were both soaked through to the bone, and instead linked their hands together and splashed through puddles merrily, in no particular rush to get anywhere now.

“What do you think about children, Tony?” Pepper asked suddenly, lifting her arm high as she and Tony straddled one puddle that looked particularly deep. 

“In theory? I’d love a couple. In practice? A little daunting, Pep. I’m not exactly in the prime of my life to be raising a kid.”

“It’s more than that,” she said softly, letting go of his hand but immediately wrapping her arm around his waist as she returned to his side. 

“I don’t know how to be a parent,” Tony admitted, and though it still felt about as pleasant as pulling teeth to say these things aloud, there was no one else he would rather tell. He trusted her with every facet of himself, completely. 

Pepper snorted and rolled her eyes, using her grip on him to pull him off of the sidewalk and into a setback between the entryways of two buildings. “You are not your father. Peter adores you, Harley looks up to you, hell you would take in any neglected or orphaned child who gave you puppy dog eyes if you could.”

“There’s a difference between helping a kid in need and raising one, Pepper. They don’t expect anything from me. I don’t have guidelines on what I should be doing, or this shadow of failure looming over my shoulder with every fucking move I make.”

“All they expect from you is kindness, guidance, help when they need it, and love, Tony. That’s all I expect from you. That’s all our child would expect from you. You give all of that in abundance, and you are the only one who can’t see that.”

“The Avengers-”

“Fuck. The. Avengers,” Pepper growled, and Tony recoiled a bit in the face of this anger he had never before seen from her. “Tony, for too long they have taken everything from you and given you nothing in return. And I know that they’re trying now, I know that, and while I like some of them as people, as superheroes they are arrogant assholes who still put you in the shoes of your father and treat you as a disposable investor. They expect perfection from you, which is too much to put on anyone’s shoulders, and you carry that with you everywhere you go. You’ve been carrying it since Fury first approached you with the idea. And you need to let it go. You need to take a step back and realize that what the world expects from you, and what your family expects of you are two different things. And only one of them is truly important.”

“I don’t know how to let it go. I don’t know how to be just Tony. I can’t just drop the Stark.” He dropped his forehead to her shoulder and exhaled a shaky sigh. Leave it to a simple question about kids to end up digging out the sins of his father that he bore, and the nagging dissatisfaction and displeasure that followed him every single time he put that suit on in the name of ‘avenging.’

“Take a break then. Hang up the suit and step back from breaking your back to save the world. Figure out who Tony is, outside of the suit, outside of the company.”

“I’ve got an old lake house upstate. We could fix it up,” he offered quietly, sagging even more against her as her hand came up to card through his hair. 

“On one condition. We go by Potts while we’re there. You’ve got to leave it all, Tony. Your father included. Actually, your father especially,” Pepper whispered in his ear, lightly scratching her nails along his scalp and relishing in the soft shudder that ran the length of his spine. 

He was quiet for a long moment, just breathing her in. He knew she was right, that this right here was what truly mattered. And the thought of having a child with her, while it terrified him, also lit something warm in his gut. He could be a good father. At the very least, he had been clearly shown what not to do by his own. “How do you feel about kids, Pep?” he asked, realizing that he hadn’t given her half a chance to contribute her own thoughts on the matter. 

“I think you’ll be a great father. And I think I’d love nothing more than giving you… than giving us the opportunity to create something beautiful together. Eventually.” 

“Eventually?” 

“Well in the somewhat near future, sure, but certainly not right this second. I’m rather of the mind that the honeymoon period should be all about showing each other how much we love each other, before we think about taking a nine-month hiatus. Obviously including,” her voice dropped to a suggestive whisper, “the honeymoon itself.”

All thoughts of insecurities and worries and legacies promptly fled Tony’s mind, and he pulled back slightly to look her in the eyes. She was smirking at him with something deadly layered under the curve of her lips, and something hungry lurking in the gleam of her eyes. “How much do you love me, Pepper?” he asked quietly. 

She kissed a heady promise against his lips in answer. 

They all but sprinted through the downpour back to their suite after that, Tony fumbling with the keycode while Pepper draped herself over his back and nuzzled into his neck with these soft little humming noises that made his vision blur at the edges. 

He finally won in his short-lived (but rather fierce) fight against the lock and spun to catch Pepper’s devilish lips with his own, using his back to push the door open and dragging her inside after him with a greedy hold on the sides of her face. He vaguely registered her kicking the door shut behind them, but was too busy stumbling back towards the bedroom, and too covetous of her kiss to even consider breaking from her to get off some quip or gratitude for having the foresight and mental capacity that he, at the moment, very much did not. 

Tony’s landing on the bed was the first and only thing that managed to break through the haze. He yelped, breaking from Pepper as he bounced up and scooted backward, landing on his ass in the middle of the mattress in what was really a rather impressive feat of body contortion. 

“Oh, I forgot about that,” Pepper said softly, and Tony was quite sure that she was talking to herself. He was certain of it as she breathed something he wasn’t able to catch and pulled her tank top off over her head. “Well?” she asked suddenly as she grabbed the waistband of her skirt and began to push it down her legs. He blinked stupidly at her, finally getting the memo when she arched an eyebrow, ran her tongue along her teeth, and dropped a pointed look to the rather obvious tenting in his pants with a slight cocking of her head. 

He didn’t think he’d ever gotten naked quite so fast in his entire life. 

She joined him on the bed, crawling towards him in a way that made his skin crawl in the most pleasantly anticipatory way, using her own momentum to push him onto his back, though far more gently this time. He didn’t even wince. 

“You’re still burnt,” she remarked simply as she hovered above him, her lips brushing against his softly as she spoke, her eyes holding his. All Tony could do was nod helplessly. “Then let me do the work.” Somehow her voice dropped even lower, softened even more, and then she landed a soft peck to his lips. She followed that with another, then another, then another, and so on, each kiss deepening and linger a tad longer than the last until his lips opened in a soft moan and she finally kissed him like she meant it, sealing her lips to his and using that velvet tongue of hers to tease into his mouth in the way she knew he liked. 

“I should have packed better,” she murmured softly as she shifted until she was straddling his face, carding a hand through his hair encouragingly. 

Not that he needed any encouragement as he surged upwards to press his lips to her searing flesh, parting her with one deft stroke of his tongue. 

“I would have loved to fuck you today,” she finished her thought with a soft sigh, letting her thighs widen and relax, sinking onto him eagerly. 

All Tony could do was whimper and suck her clit to show her just how much he was onboard with fulfilling that desire of hers as soon as they got home. 

Pepper rode his face to the brink of pleasure and back for what felt like an eternity. She pulled away each time the feeling in her hips began to swell, cutting it off just before it could crest, allowing Tony to catch his breath and prolonging this for herself. She wasn’t quite ready to be finished with him yet. 

When Tony whined as she pulled away, only then did she decide to grant him mercy, retreating down the length of him, littering kisses across his face as she went. She teased along his jaw with her teeth as she wrapped her hand around his rock hard cock and dragged her fist slowly up, twisting her grip around the head, relishing the curse he let out as she slowly stroked her hand back down. She only allowed his frantic lips to catch hers as she used her hold on him to guide him into her, catching his groan as she sank down completely and immediately gave a little wiggle. 

“How’s your burn?” she whispered against his lips, her hands planting themselves next to his head and effectively holding him there, her helpless, hopeless prisoner. 

“What burn?” he answered back, and though Pepper knew he was trying to joke, his tone belied just how tightly clenched his teeth were. 

She didn’t feel the need to get into a witty quip-off with him at the moment, not with the way she could feel him giving these desperate little twitches within her, so she instead just hummed and pushed into the mattress, using her newfound leverage to pull off of him as slowly as possible until he was only just within her. She bit his lip as she slid back down until he was sheathed inside her fully again, claiming the huff that was forced out of his mouth with a needy little whine, and then she rode him in earnest, shattering only moments later, too strung out from her earlier denial to even consider drawing it out any longer. She slammed herself down on him, hard, and ground against him in filthy desperation as she shuddered it out, her hands grasping his wrists and pinning them down so all he could do was watch her face as she fell apart. 

When she opened her eyes again, his were the first things she saw, chocolate melted with the warmth he reserved for looking at her face like this, like there would never be another woman in the world so long as she stayed right here, pressed right up against him. 

“You didn’t cum,” she whispered on a still-shaky exhale, gingerly sitting up and, sure enough, still feeling him hard within her. 

“Didn’t give me much of a chance... wait come back!” he complained, reaching for her as she eased off of him and slipped out of the range of his greedy hands. 

She rolled her eyes at him as she made herself comfortable on her stomach between his legs, ducking her head to run her tongue along the crease of his thigh, effectively getting him to snap his mouth shut. “You were saying?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You’re doing great all on your own,” he rushed out, squirming slightly as she dropped her piercing gaze to run along his chest, down his stomach, to his flushed cock that was near vibrating against his stomach. 

She leaned down to run her tongue from tip to base, though didn’t stop there, trailing down until she lapped softly between his cheeks, spreading his legs further apart with her shoulders so she could press her tongue against his sensitive rim. 

Tony squeezed his eyes shut and fisted his hands in the sheets by his sides, trying (and failing) to not push back against her as she licked him open, making these soft little mewling noises that drove him absolutely mad. He almost shouted in relief when she finally pressed a finger against his hole, pushing gently until his body acquiesced and granted her entrance, allowing her to slowly finger him, gradually adding a second finger, then a third. 

She watched him rock against her hand with a hunger she knew she couldn’t sate at the moment, given her lack of supplies and all, and a pride in herself that she had him, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, Tony Stark himself shaking on her fingers, most certainly riding the razor’s edge of pleasure. Determined to be his ruin, she wrapped her other hand around his cock, setting a lazy place with a loose fist, taunting him. 

He snapped after only a few strokes, one of his hands flying down to wrap around hers in a tight grip, working himself over harshly until his hips bucked up, hard, and he came across his chest and stomach with a hoarse shout. 

Pepper pulled their hands away from his still twitching cock, drinking in his tortured whine with no small amount of relish, but kept her fingers in his ass, slowly stroking within him until he sagged lax into the bed and his tight muscles relaxed completely, allowing her to carefully pull out. 

“I love you, Mrs. Stark,” he said, staring at the ceiling almost like he was dazed. Pepper smirked, allowing herself only a moment to just look at him like this before returning to face-level with him, pressing her lips to his softly. 

“I love you, Mr. Potts.” 

They both giggled quietly, and Tony threw his arms around her, pulling her tight to his side.

Outside the balcony door, they could still see the storm raging, rain lashing the windows ferociously. 

“Guess we aren’t going anywhere else today,” Tony sighed, not that he sounded remotely sorry about that. 

“Oh no,” Pepper deadpanned. “Whatever shall we do?” 

“I have some ideas. But no rush, we can take our time.”

“Are you tired, old man?” Pepper asked gleefully, turning to hit him with the full force of her wry grin. 

He snorted and pulled her back on top of him, taking her cheeks in his hands and pulling her down to meet him halfway in a searing kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've seen this once, it'll feel like you've seen it a thousand times:  
> I own no Marvel properties.  
> Bri's my only property.  
> Pretty please don't post this anywhere else!


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